The University of Georgia Magazine March 2010

the university of

GEORGIA March 2010 • Vol. 89, No. 2

Talk about the passion

The

First Stop

for the

Outdoors

TALK ABOUT THE PASSION

Dear Readers:

This issue of the Georgia Magazine is themed around the growing, thriving music community in Athens and at the University of Georgia. With the exception of Around the Arch at the front of the book, every piece in this issue—from feature stories to profiles to the back page—showcases music, musicians, and those in the music industry, many of them UGA alumni.

In fact, we had far too much information to fit into one 56-page magazine.

On our Web site, you’ll find additional content, including first person memories and archival photos.

We are very grateful to the following organizations, which provided financial support for this issue:

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The Terry College of Business The Hugh Hodgson School of Music New West Records

We also want to thank local artist Patrick Dean (BFA ’98) for creating our cover art, which features caricatures of musicians whose works have contributed to Athens’ reputation as a music city. We owe a debt of gratitute to the photographers who were willing to share their images with us: Terry Allen, Rhonda Nell Fleming, Scott Ippolito and Billy Young. We would also like to thank the many Athens musicians who provided us with interviews, images and songs.

Enjoy!

GM Staff

SCOTT IPPOLITO

Five Eight’s Mike Mantione onstage at Smith’s Olde Bar in Atlanta in November.

RIGHT CLICK Download Athens music—including new songs from Five Eight, Modern Skirts and The Bearfoot Hookers—at the Georgia Magazine Web site. Through June 15, MP3s from these artists and others including Allison Weiss, Spring Tigers, The Agenda, The Orkids, Venice is Sinking, Curley Maple, DJ Triz, JazzChronic and Sursievision are available for download at www.uga.edu/gm.

How many did you recognize on the cover?

1. Rhett Crowe (Guadalcanal Diary) 2. John Bell (Widespread Panic) 3. Mike Houser (Widespread Panic) 4. Cindy Wilson (B-52s) 5. Fred Mills (UGA School of Music) 6. Curtis Crowe (Pylon) 7. Randy Bewley (Pylon) 8. Vanessa Briscoe Hay (Pylon) 9. Michael Lachowski (Pylon) 10. Arvin Scott (UGA School of Music) 11. Bill Berry (R.E.M.) 12. Peter Buck (R.E.M.) 13. Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) 14. Mike Mills (R.E.M.) 15. Harold Williams (The Jesters)

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

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GEORGIA THE UNIVERSITY OF

MAGAZINE

March 2010 • Vol. 89, No. 1

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ADMINISTRATION Michael F. Adams, President Jere Morehead, JD ’80, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Tom S. Landrum, AB ’72, MA ’87,

Senior Vice President for External Affairs Tim Burgess, AB ’77, Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration PUBLIC AFFAIRS Tom Jackson, AB ’73, MPA ’04, PhD ’08, Vice President Alison Huff, Director of Publications GEORGIA MAGAZINE Editor, Kelly Simmons Managing Editor, Allyson Mann, MA ’92 Art Director, Cheri Wranosky, BFA ’84 Advertising Director, Pamela Leed Office Manager, Fran Burke Photographers, Paul Efland, BFA ’75, MEd ’80; Peter Frey, BFA ’94; Robert Newcomb, BFA ’81; Beth Newman, BFA ’07; Rick O’Quinn, ABJ ’87; Dot Paul; Andrew Davis Tucker Editorial Assistants, Jackie Reedy and Paige Varner

DEPARTMENTS 5 Take 5 with the President 6

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Cecil Bentley, BBA ’70, UGA journalism staff; Valerie Boyd, UGA journalism faculty; Bobby Byrd, ABJ ’80, Wells Real Estate Funds; Jim Cobb, AB ’69, MA ’72, PhD ’75, UGA history faculty; Richard Hyatt, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer; Brad King, MMC ’97, BVK Communications; Fran Lane, AB ’69, MEd ’71, retired director, UGA Visitors Center; Bill McDougald, ABJ ’76, MLA ’86, Southern Living; Nicole Mitchell, UGA Press; Leneva Morgan, ABJ ’88, Georgia Power; Donald Perry, ABJ ’74, Chick-fil-A; Swann Seiler, ABJ ’78, Coastal Region of Georgia Power; Robert Willett, ABJ ’66, MFA ’73, retired journalism faculty; Martha Mitchell Zoller, ABJ ’79, WDUN-AM

ON THE COVER The cover for this issue was designed by artist Patrick Dean (BFA ’98), who created caricatures depicting many of the musicians quoted and referenced in stories in this edition of Georgia Magazine.

2 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Campus news and events

Around the Arch

Music in Athens is serious

business—without a serious attitude

by Allyson Mann (MA ’92)

26 Reaching a crescendo

The Hugh Hodgson School of Music has an ambitious new director and lofty goals for the future

by Lori Johnston (ABJ ’95)

32 Let’s get down to business

The Athens community is a living lab for students in UGA’s Music Business Certificate Program

by Kelly Simmons

CLASS NOTES 38 Alumni profiles and notes

Kite to the Moon’s Timi Conley (second from left) performs with the band and guests on one of the outdoor stages during AthFest 2008. photo by John McDonald

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In compliance with federal law, including the provisions of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the University of Georgia does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, or military service in its administration of educational policies, programs, or activities; its admissions policies; scholarship and loan programs; athletic or other University-administered programs; or employment. In addition, the University does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation consistent with the University nondiscrimination policy. Inquiries or complaints should be directed to the director of the Equal Opportunity Office, Peabody Hall, 290 South Jackson Street, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Telephone 706-542-7912 (V/TDD). Fax 706-542-2822.

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FINE PRINT Georgia Magazine (ISSN 1085-1042) is published quarterly for alumni and friends of UGA. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: University of Georgia, 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North, Athens, GA 30602-5582

President Michael F. Adams on music and UGA

FEATURES 14 Talk about the passion

EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS

Tom S. Landrum, AB ’72, MA ’87, Senior Vice President, E­ xternal Affairs; Tom Jackson, AB ’73, MPA ’04, PhD ’08, VP, Public Affairs; Deborah Dietzler, ­Executive ­Director, UGA Alumni Association; Alison Huff, Director of Publications; Eric Johnson, ABJ ’86, Director of UGA Visitors Center How to advertise in GEORGIA MAGAZINE: Contact Pamela Leed: 706/542-8124 or pjleed@uga.edu Where to send story ideas, letters, Class Notes items: Georgia Magazine 286 Oconee St., Suite 200 North Athens, GA 30602-1999 E-mail: GMeditor@uga.edu Web site: www.uga.edu/gm or University of Georgia Alumni Association www.alumni.uga.edu/alumni Address changes: E-mail records@uga.edu or call 888/268-5442

GEORGIA MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARD VOLUNTEER MEMBERS

GEORGIA MAGAZINE• MARCH • MARCH 2010 GEORGIA MAGAZINE 2010

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The

GeorgiaC lub

CLASSIC LIVING IN THE HEART OF BULLDOG COUNTRY

Make a Complete Weekend Out of Your Visit to Athens

.Golf our 27-hole Chancellors Course

.Enjoy Clubhouse Dining for lunch, dinner or Sunday Brunch (Reservations recommended!) .Tour our Model Homes Sundays 1 p.m. to 4:00 p.m For more information please call 770.725.8100 or visit www.LivinginBulldogCountry.com 4 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

The Georgia Club is located off University Parkway (Hwy 316), 12 miles west of campus. Homes of distinction from the $300,000s to $1+ million.

TAKE

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— President Michael F. Adams on music and UGA

Q: Athens has become known as a music city. How does the university fit into that image?

A: UGA is at the epicenter of the development of the music scene here. Many of the groups include students. The best known manager of the most successful band, R.E.M. (whose members were students), is Bertis Downs, who was a law student. Mark Maxwell developed studios and other facilities in town to support the music here. You can’t talk about the growth of the music scene without talking about students, whether as performers or fans. UGA’s Performing Arts Center, along with other venues in Athens such as the Classic Center, the Rialto Michael F. Adams Room, the Melting Point, the 40 Watt Club, the Georgia Theatre and others have, for years now, offered opportunities for our students and alumni to gain music performance, production and management experiences while providing this community with a rich, diverse array of good music to enjoy.

Q: The Music Business Certificate Program was a unique addition to the Terry College when it began in 2006.

How does having that program here benefit UGA? A: It has been a tremendous asset not just to the university but to the entire state. The leadership of Bruce Burch is unexcelled; he has a taste from his days in Nashville for what we can develop here. A lot of talented musicians have suffered from a lack of good management, and this program is going to help remedy that.

Q: It is a pivotal time for the Hodgson School of Music, with a new director and vacancies in four important positions.

Is this an opportunity for UGA to try to move its music school to a new level on the national scene?

A: We have a great base on which to build. I have a very high level of confidence in Dr. (Dale) Monson [director of the Hodgson School of Music], and I am certain that he will attract people of national caliber to UGA. I have said it hundreds of times and I’ll say it again: You can’t have a great university without a great fine arts program, and music is an integral part of that.

Q: What is the future of music—both through the Hodgson School of Music and the Terry College of Business—at UGA? A: Things here are only going to get better. Don Lowe left a nice legacy. Fred Mills will be sorely missed. But I believe we will get a shot in the arm at the Performing Arts Center from George Foreman, who was a protégé of Fred’s. The future of music instruction, research and performance here is very bright.

Q: What do you listen to?

A: I pretty much cover the waterfront. I listen to everything from Gregorian chants and classical to the Stones, Elton John and Eric Clapton.

PAUL EFLAND

The UGA jazz band, with Jazz Studies Director Steve Dancz (left), traveled to China in 2008 with Gov. Sonny Perdue and a delegation from UGA to open a Georgia Economic Development Office in Beijing.

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ARCH AROUNDTHE

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

Three- and four-year-olds at the McPhaul Child Development Lab pay close attention as UGA President Michael F. Adams reads to them.

Fostering future bulldogs

iTUNES

AND UGA

Want to see Widespread Panic singer/ guitarist John Bell’s presentation to UGA music business students last August? Or watch former UGA quarterback Eric Zeier’s appearance at the “Terry (College) Third Thursday” program?

You can do both—free—from iTunes U at UGA. Offering both audio and video, iTunes U at UGA houses university announcements, course lectures and unique programs created

by UGA colleges and departments. Available downloads include digital storytelling videos from the Center for Teaching and Learning, Romantic poetry readings from the English department, a student-produced film from Grady Fest, the Grady College’s video production showcase, and videos from the psychology department’s primate cognition and behavior laboratory. Check it out at http://itunes.uga.edu.

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MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Three- and four-year-olds at the McPhaul Child Development Laboratory got a special treat in January when UGA President Michael F. Adams dropped in to read two books, Boom Chicka Rock by John Archambault and Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come by Nancy Carlson.

The reading was part of an event sponsored by the Ferst Foundation to celebrate its 10 years of providing free books to Georgia preschoolers. During December and January the foundation videotaped Georgia company CEOs and organization presidents, like Adams, reading a favorite book to children. The videos were posted on YouTube from Feb. 8 to 12. Viewers were asked to cast votes for the best reader on the Ferst Foundation Web site.

While Adams didn’t win—the title went to Georgia State University President Mark Becker—he was a hit with the kids in head teacher Phillip Baumgarner’s class.

“I’m going to kindergarten!” one little boy announced as Adams read the first pages of the book about a mouse named Henry, who is preparing for his first day of school.

“I’m going to kindergarten,” added another.

“My brother’s in kindergarten,” said a third.

Adams, no stranger to comments from the peanut gallery, assured them that they all would be in kindergarten before too long. “And before your parents know it,” he said, “you’ll be here with us at the University of Georgia.”

Get more information on the Ferst Foundation at www.ferstfoundation.org.

First-year seminars part of reaccreditation plan Freshman seminars for all first-year students would be mandatory under a plan being developed as part of UGA’s reaccreditation process, now under way.

As part of the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan, the one-hour seminars taught by tenured or tenure-track faculty would be available for all incoming freshmen in fall 2011. Class size would be limited to 18 or fewer students.

The academic focus of the seminars would depend on the faculty member’s area of expertise. Faculty would be encouraged to develop seminars that include discussions of research, public service and international programs at UGA. Freshmen seminars already are available to students in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. The deadline for the university to submit the plan to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is Dec. 10. For more on the draft plan go to www.qep. uga.edu.

Lending a paw Dawgs for Haiti, a campus-wide initiative organized by Volunteer UGA, has raised more than $58,000 for the relief efforts in Haiti. More than 100 campus organizations have joined in the fundraiser, holding bake sales and benefits, selling T-shirts, collecting money at athletics events and encouraging local businesses to donate a portion of their proceeds to the effort. UGA President Michael F. Adams helped the initiative by volunteering to sell T-shirts and asking the university community to contribute during his Jan. 21 State of the University address. The students also gave Athens businesses blue ribbons, representing the blue of the Haitian flag, to give to patrons who contributed to the cause. The first $50,000 collected was pledged to the American Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. Dawgs for Haiti has made an additional $50,000 pledge to Oxfam America for that organization’s reconstruction and development efforts in Haiti. Online donations and T-shirt orders are accepted at the organization’s Web site, dawgsforhaiti.uga.edu.

FRED MILLS

Sophomore accounting major T.C. Bedo of Alpharetta hawks $10 Dawgs for Haiti T-shirts in the Tate Center Plaza.

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

HAPPY 100TH, GRADUATE SCHOOL The UGA Graduate School began its yearlong centennial celebration in January with an address by Debra Stewart, president of the Council of Graduate Schools, who spoke about the opportunities and challenges facing graduate education in the next decade and beyond. Founded in 1910, the Graduate School has grown from seven students to more than 7,000 today. Mary Frances Early, the first black student to receive a graduate degree from UGA, will give a lecture in April as part of the anniversary celebration.

UGA SCIENTIST GETS $4.4 MILLION FOR GENETICS RESEARCH Researchers from UGA and the University of Pennsylvania have been awarded a five-year, $14.6 million contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, to expand work on the Eukaryotic Pathogen Genome Database Resource. Of that, $4.4 million is sub-contracted to UGA for Jessica Kissinger of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, who is one of three investigators directing the database. The open database allows scientists to examine genes, genomes, isolates and other attributes related to a variety of important human pathogens, and it facilitates the search for effective diagnostics and therapeutics. More than 42,000 scientists from more than 100 countries have used the database and its component Web sites over the past six months.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

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BEST IN SHOW A BARK OUT TO

… Stephen Dalton, a professor and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar of Molecular Cell Biology, who received a $600,000 federal stimulus grant for stem cell research from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences. … Rosemary Phelps, a counseling professor, who received the 2010 Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training Award from the American Psychological Association.

STEPHEN DALTON

… Peter Smagorinsky, a professor of language and literacy education in the University of Georgia College of Education, who received the 2009 Edward Fry Book Award from the National Reading Conference.

ARTHUR DUNNING

… The Child Development Lab at the McPhaul Center of the University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer Sciences for receiving its accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

BACK TO ’BAMA PETER SMAGORINSKY

… Stephen Dorner, an honors undergraduate from Alpharetta, who is among the nationally selected recipients of the George J. Mitchell Postgraduate Scholarship. … Jill Turner, an honors undergraduate, who is one of seven young women selected nationally for the Running Start/Wal-Mart Star Fellowship Program.

STEPHEN DORNER

… The Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, which was ranked number one in advertising research by the international Journal of Advertising.

… UGA Assistant Professors Jason Locklin and Zhengwei Pan, who hold joint appointments in the Faculty of Engineering and the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and have been selected to receive National Science Foundation CAREER Awards, one of the most prestigious honors awarded to outstanding young scientists. They will receive a combined total of almost $1.1 million over five years to conduct nanotechnology research projects. … The Georgia Museum of Art, which received an award for Outstanding Exhibition and Catalogue of Historical Materials from the Southeastern College Art Conference for its publication and exhibition “The American Scene on Paper: Prints and Drawings from the Schoen Collection.”

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MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Arthur Dunning, vice president for public service and outreach at UGA since 2000, will leave Georgia at the end of March to become vice chancellor of international programs and outreach for the University of Alabama System.

Dunning was instrumental in expanding UGA’s public service and outreach programs during his decade in Athens. He enhanced the university’s profile in other areas of the state by creating the Archway Partnership, which pairs university expertise with needs identified by community members to drive economic growth. He also established the Office of Service-Learning in collaboration with the Office of the Vice President for Instruction to support faculty members as they integrate community service with academic coursework.

The move to Tuscaloosa is a coming home of sorts for Dunning, who was among the first class of African-American undergraduates admitted to the University of Alabama after the university was desegregated in 1963.

JOURNALISM STUDENTS LAUNCH NEWS BUREAU Grady College graduate students concentrating in health and medical journalism are launching a public health news bureau to distribute information on issues facing the state such as high infant mortality, soaring obesity rates and an aging public health work force.

Funded by the Healthcare Georgia Foundation, the news bureau will provide stories for print, radio and television outlets throughout Georgia.

TRAINING IN MIDDLE EAST JACKIE REEDY

Members of the Ballroom Performance Group show the sultry side to some traditional dances.

Having a ball The West Coast swing, the cha-cha and the mambo were among the dances performed during “Ballroom Magic,” an annual event presented by UGA’s Ballroom Performance Group. From sultry-smooth to energetic and fun, the dancers presented the lesser-known side of ballroom dancing, appearing monster-esque in a robotic thriller they choreographed to Lady Gaga’s hit “Bad Romance.” A Viennese waltz was choreographed to the Queen song “Somebody to Love,” which included dancers dressed as high school nerds, country hicks and rockers.

The UGA School of Law has partnered with the Dubai Judicial Institute to train judges, lawyers and court officials from the Middle East. Thirty members of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain judiciary attended three days of training in November, which marked the first time members of the Dean Rusk Center’s International Judicial Training Program have traveled outside the U.S. to conduct on-site instruction. The program seeks to promote capacity-building judicial administration programs and is co-sponsored by the Georgia Institute of Continuing Judicial Education.

Construction begins UGA held a groundbreaking ceremony in January for the Richard B. Russell Building, which will be the new home of the Special Collections Library. Construction of the 115,000-square-foot building is projected to take two years and cost close to $46 million, with approximately one-third of that amount coming from private sources. The building will provide state-of-the-art storage and climate control for valuable collections, such as the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Walter J. Brown Media Archive and Peabody Awards Collection, and the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies. The building will be constructed around a 30,000-square-foot storage area with shelves that will be 30 feet high, providing an environment that will protect and preserve the materials for future generations.

SPECIAL

An artist’s rendering shows the design of the Richard B. Russell Building, which will house the library’s special collections. The building will be located at the corner of Hull Street and Florida Avenue.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

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Tate takes the gold

KEVIN KIRSCHE

PETER FREY

UGA CREATES OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY As of Feb. 1, UGA has an Office of Sustainability, funded with a $3 annual fee that students voted to impose on themselves last year. Kevin Kirsche, a former assistant planning director in the Office of University Architects, was named to head the new office.

In announcing the office during his State of the University speech in January, President Michael F. Adams said sustainability would be a priority in the 2010-20 Strategic Plan, which currently is under development, and that it would be the responsibility of Kirsche’s office to hold university departments accountable.

He also announced he would accept the recommendations of a Sustainability Working Group, which was formed last year to review green initiatives on the UGA campus. Recommendations include adopting a slogan, “Go Green: Live Red and Black,” to use as a constant refrain in sustainability efforts on campus; maintaining a Web site highlighting sustainability efforts at UGA; drafting an annual report and holding an annual forum on sustainability; increasing the amount of waste recycled by the university; installing signage to remind students, employees and visitors about UGA’s commitment to sustainability; and collaborating further with other state institutions in the research and application of sustainability measures.

Adams also used the speech to announce he would accept the green fee, which is expected to generate about $120,000 a year for sustainability efforts on campus.

10 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

GOING GREEN

The Tate Student Center expansion, which was completed last year, is the first UGA building to receive LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The addition received gold certification for meeting standards for energy savings, water efficiency, carbon dioxide emissions reduction, indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources with sensitivity to their impacts. LEED provides building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building PAUL EFLAND TATE STUDENT CENTER design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

The Tate Center addition features a 26,378-square-foot green roof, as well as a 75,000-gallon cistern for rainwater and condensate water harvesting. The reclaimed water is being used to flush toilets, provide make-up water for campus fountains and irrigate the campus landscape from non-potable sources. The building’s mechanical system is designed to maximize efficiencies with heat recovery and an economizer mode. Approximately 40 percent of the building materials were supplied by local or regional sources, and low VOC (volatile organic compound) materials were used in carpet, paint, adhesives and sealants throughout the building in order to enhance air quality. In addition, the university diverted three-quarters of the construction waste from landfills to a construction waste recycling facility that provided materials such as gravel mulch and soil to be used elsewhere on campus.

Four other UGA projects are LEED-registered and tracking certification at the silver or gold level: the College of Pharmacy addition, a new residence hall on East Campus, the Georgia Museum of Art addition and the Richard B. Russell Building for the Special Collections Libraries.

LIVING GREEN A new East Campus residence hall scheduled to open this fall for non-first-year students will have a technologically advanced living space that incorporates ecofriendly programs into everyday life for a complete “Living Green” experience.

UGA is seeking LEED certification for the building once construction is completed.

Promotion of community connectivity, physical activity and pollution reduction will help reinforce the “Living Green” practices of the new building.

Features that incorporate green technology include in-room temperature controls; high-efficiency sinks, showers and toilets that allow a significant savings per year in water; treated gray water recycled from sinks and showers for use in toilets; low-emitting VOCs in paint, carpet, coatings, sealants and adhesives that reduce contaminants affecting indoor air quality; and double-paned, low-energy windows that help rooms maintain constant temperatures.

Ten percent of the materials used to construct the residence hall are made of recycled content. The exterior of the building features a cool roof and concrete sidewalks which reflect light. Drought-resistant landscaping and runoff water are used to replenish underground water sources.

Pro golf event will benefit needy students Next month the UGA golf course will be the site of the Stadion Athens Classic, the PGA Nationwide Tour event previously held at the Jennings Mill Country Club. Watkinsville-based Stadion Money Management Inc. is the title sponsor.

The tournament will be held April 29-May 2, with related events scheduled throughout that week. All net proceeds will go to UGA to support needs-based scholarships. It is the fifth year that Athens has been a stop on the Nationwide Tour, which has only one other event in Georgia, the South Georgia Classic in Valdosta. For more information on the Stadion Athens Classic, go to www.stadionathensclasANDREW DAVIS TUCKER sic.uga.edu.

UGA GOLF COURSE

NASA grant to focus on climate change and birds Four UGA professors have received a three-year, $447,000 grant from NASA to offer undergraduates a yearlong combination of classroom and field classes studying the effects of climate change on birds. Beginning in fall 2010, three professors in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources—Jeffrey Hepinstall-Cymerman, Robert Cooper and Michael Conroy—and Marshall Shepherd of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences will teach students about global climate change models, research methods and designing field experiments. The final course in the lecture and lab series—to be held during summer classes—will have students perform their experiments in the field. That experience is expected to make students more competitive for graduate schools and jobs.

KIRK STODOLA

A NASA grant will allow UGA researchers to study effects of climate change on birds like this Black-throated Blue Warbler.

UGA VII

DANNY WHITE

GONE TOO SOON Bulldogs fans felt the blow in midNovember when Uga VII, who had been the team mascot for less than two seasons, died unexpectedly. The four-year-old white English bulldog, officially named “Loran’s Best,” had been with the team since Aug. 30, 2008, when he made his debut at the start of the UGA-South Carolina home opener.

The line of Ugas goes back to 1956 when the first white English bulldog—a wedding present to Sonny and Cecilia Seiler—was photographed at the Bulldogs season opener against Florida State. Since then, the Seiler family has bred Uga often enough to preserve the lineage so that a descendant of the original mascot is always on the sidelines. Uga VIII will be introduced prior to the 2010 football season.

FALL ATHLETES MAKE THE GRADE A total of 54 UGA student-athletes from three fall sports programs—football, volleyball and women’s soccer— were named to the 2009 Fall Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll. Georgia ranked second out of the 12 SEC institutions in total honorees, behind only the University of South Carolina, which had 78. Only studentathletes who compete in fall sports are eligible for the Fall SEC Honor Roll, which is based on grades from the 2009 spring, summer and fall terms.

Criteria include a minimum 3.0 GPA for either the preceding academic year (two semesters) or a cumulative grade point average of 3.0. To be considered, a student-athlete must have successfully completed 24 semester hours of non-remedial academic credit toward a baccalaureate degree.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

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Donors make UGA history possible.

Did you know today’s legendary Redcoat Marching Band had humble beginnings in 1905 as a 20-member Military Cadet Band? Both then and now, UGA represented excellence in public higher education and the promise of great advances for the century ahead.

Today, donors make educational advancements like scholarships, endowed professorships, graduate fellowships and international study possible.

As we honor the past in this, our 225th anniversary year, we also look to a bright future where our talented students and distinguished faculty make history every day.

We welcome you to be a part of it.

Give every year. Make a difference every day.

To learn more about the important work of our students and faculty and to give online, visit the Georgia Fund Web site at:

www.givingtouga.com 12 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

For more information, contact The University of Georgia Office of Development Annual and Special Giving 394 S. Milledge Ave., Ste. 100 Athens, GA 30602-5582 1-888-268-5442

Congratulations to the

TOP TEN 1

Hitson Land & Timber Management Greg Hitson ’94 Port Orange, FL

2

Evoshield Justin Niefer ’04 Bogart, GA

3

Payscape Advisors Leo Welf ’95 Atlanta, GA

4

Clear Harbor, LLC Tut Smith ’79 Alpharetta, GA

5

JKMilne Asset Management John Milne ’80 Pittsburgh, PA

6

Snorg Tees Matt Walls ’03 Alpharetta, GA

7

Forisk Consulting Brooks Mendell ’04 Athens, GA

8

HROI Tim Mitchell ’91 Lawrenceville, GA

9

Mom Corps Allison Karl O’Kelly ’94 Atlanta, GA

10

Cooper-Atlanta Transportation Fred Rich ’75 Atlanta, GA

The UGA Alumni Association is proud to honor the Bulldog 100, the Fastest Growing Bulldog Businesses. Owned and operated

by UGA alumni, the Bulldog 100 were measured according to compounded annual growth rate over the past three years. Congratulations to all 100 businesses on their successes. Be on the lookout for information about the 2011 Bulldog 100 coming soon.

See the full listGEORGIA at: uga.edu/alumni/bulldog100 13 MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

Ricky Wilson, Memorial Hall, 1979

COURTESY OF WIDESPREAD PANIC

Widespread Panic, Uptown Lounge, early ’80s

Michael Stipe, Tyrone’s, 1980

© TERRY ALLEN

R.E.M., Tyrone’s, 1980 Pylon, Tyrone’s, 19792010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE 14 MARCH

JIMMY ELLISON

© TERRY ALLEN

© TERRY ALLEN

Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson, Memorial Hall, 1979

Music in Athens is serious business— without a serious attitude

Talk about the passion

by Allyson Mann (MA ’92)

H

© TERRY ALLEN

ere’s the short version: the Athens music scene began April 5, 1980, when an unknown band—that later took the name R.E.M.— played their first gig at a friend’s birthday party. The bash took place at an old church on Oconee Street, where several of the band members lived along with Kathleen O’Brien, the birthday girl. They lived in the renovated front space, and to get to the former sanctuary in the back where they played, they went through O’Brien’s closet.

The band played seven or eight original songs, and the rest were covers like “God Save the Queen,” “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone” and “Gloria.” Night life in Athens was practically nonexistent then, so 300 people showed up for free beer and three unknown bands (Men in Trees and The Side Effects also played).

“People came because it was a happening, because it was a party,” R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills says. “Who was playing didn’t matter.”

Entertainment Weekly’s May 28, 1999, issue would name R.E.M.’s first gig one of the 100 greatest moments in rock music. By then, R.E.M. had achieved the kind of mainstream success that caused music fans everywhere to take a close look at the band’s hometown. But there was music in Athens before R.E.M.

In the early 1900s the city’s Hot Corner—the intersection of Washington and Hull Streets—was central to the African-American community, providing office space for black dentists, doctors and lawyers as well as entertainment opportunities at the Morton Theatre, which hosted national acts like Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington.

The ’50s brought rock ’n’ roll to campus, with Jerry Lee Lewis performing from the back of a flatbed trailer in the middle of town.

“He was in a category all his own in the music world and just full of rhythm, pounding out favorites on his piano—‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On’ and ‘Great Balls of Fire,’” Rita Olsen Campbell (BSEd ’58) says. “When Jerry played ‘Good Golly Miss Molly,’ we couldn’t keep our feet still.”

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UGA later hosted touring acts like Steppenwolf, Sergio Mendes, B.B. King and the Village People at campus facilities like the Memorial Hall Ballroom, the Fine Arts Auditorium, Legion Field and Stegeman Coliseum. Tommy Altman (AB ’75), who enrolled at UGA in 1968 and worked in cultural affairs, counts Dolly Parton’s show in the late ’70s as one of his favorites. In those days, the men’s football locker rooms were on the lower level of the Coliseum. During her visit Parton headed to a conference room in the same area for a press event—and didn’t stop.

“She just kind of kept on going and walked right into the men’s locker room,” Altman says. “She squealed that squeal of hers and said, ‘Oooooeeeee, I think I’ve gone to heaven!’”

COURTESY OF TOMMY ALTMAN

In the ’70s, concert publicity posters often were drawn by UGA art students and sometimes incorporated campus scenes, as in this poster for a 1979 Boston show.

© TERRY ALLEN

Though the B-52s were playing in New York within a year of their first gig, they returned to Athens in 1979 to play a show at UGA’s Memorial Hall.

BILLY YOUNG

The Jesters, including saxophonist Harold Williams (second from left), formed at Athens High School in the ’60s and played Athfest in 2004.

Williams (BBA ’71) remembers seeing the B-52s play in Nashville. “That was the funniest stuff I’d ever seen,” he says. “I went and bought the records, and I loved it.”

16 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

COURTESY OF THE HARGRETT RARE BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS

In the early 1900s the Morton Building provided office space for black lawyers and doctors as well as entertainment opportunities at the Morton Theatre.

Athens musicians benefit from WUOG’s playlist

By Mary Jessica Hammes (ABJ ’99)

Though many performers at that time were from out of town, there were some homegrown acts. The Jesters, a group of friends at Athens High School (now Clarke Central High School), formed in 1964 and played a blend of Motown and beach music, booking their first gig at the VFW on Sunset Drive. Like most of the members, saxophonist Harold Williams (BBA ’71) grew up in Athens and played in the high school band.

“We would play our R&B music, our Temptations and Four Tops, and then right in the middle of it they would blow a whistle and we would have to play a square dance,” Williams says of the Jesters’ VFW gigs, imitating a twangy square dance sound. “That was what was available, and hell, we just loved to do it. So we would do it anywhere we could.”

The Jesters toured the Southeast, serving as a backup band for some of their idols like Marvin Gaye and the Platters.

They ate at truck stops and restaurants along the way, and one establishment wouldn’t let the Platters in.

“It was an amazing time, because I got a black man’s perspective early on,” Williams says. “Now you wouldn’t think about it at all, but then riding through parts of South Carolina, Georgia or Alabama it was slightly dangerous.”

In the late ’60s and early ’70s artists like Williams, fellow Jester Davis Causey and Randall Bramblett (MSW ’89) wrote and performed their own music and played with groups like Goose Creek Symphony, the Normaltown Flyers and Dixie Grease.

Over time, venues like Tyrone’s O.C. and the Last Resort began to open their doors to local acts.

“That’s why I moved down here,” says Bramblett, who came in 1969 after graduating from the University of North Carolina. “It was a good environment to explore. It was a good breeding ground for people to test their songwriting skills.”

O

n Valentine’s Day 1977, the B-52s played their first gig at a house party on North Milledge Avenue. After hearing about the “weird” local band, Jeff Walls made sure he caught a show and was surprised by the band’s combination of dance and surf music, call-and-response vocals and thrift-store costumes.

Turn on WUOG 90.5 and you’ll hear music that commercial radio would never touch—jangly poppy music, hardcore metal music, folksy bluesy music, music with weird lyrics, music with screaming—followed by a youthful voice announcing what local band was just played: Allison Weiss, Hope For Agoldensummer, Puddin’ Tang, to name a few.

Since 1972, WUOG has supported local music.

Like all college radio stations, itJeters oftencutliner. plays bands that start local but make it big nationally, sometimes becoming mainstream.

But unlike all college MARK HAFER radio stations, WUOG is in a Neil Williamson (AB ’00), then general manager, in thriving music town. In the WUOG’s control room in 1979. late ’70s and early ’80s, when Athens’ music scene took off, WUOG played a pivotal role in getting that music heard on a grand scale.

“From the very beginning, WUOG had a tie to the developing music scene,” said Manfred Jones (BBA ’87, MA ’90), who started at the station as a DJ and later became program manager. He is now the host of “The Mighty Manfred Program” on SIRIUS Satellite Radio.

When Neil Williamson (AB ’00) was general manager of the station in 1978, bands played backyards, not downtown clubs, and recorded themselves on reel-toreel tape, which WUOG accepted.

“The great thing was how many bands we broke, which all college radio stations were doing, and how much variety there was,” says Williamson, now the managing director of Cox Marketing Services and local radio personality. “For anybody who ever wanted to be in a band, it was one of the greatest times, because college radio would play your music. You had a chance to break out.”

Jones remembers how the early dance music of the B-52s and Pylon gave way to the tunes of R.E.M. and Dreams So Real, which in turn led to the harder sounds of Mercyland or Porn Orchard.

Sometimes, the lines between the radio station and local bands blurred. Jones and other station workers formed The Woggles, taking the band name from the station’s call letters, in 1987. Before then, Williamson and other DJs formed The Wuoggerz to play at the station’s fifth anniversary. Membership required no musical talent; for his part, Williamson played a beer can with a wiffle ball bat. Yet with a then-unknown Bill Berry on drums, they opened for The Police at the Georgia Theatre. They also begat the short-lived backup dancers The Wuoggettes, which featured soon-to-be Pylon singer Vanessa Hay. Kurt Wood (ABJ ’80), the station’s music director in 1979, always had the radio station in mind when he went to shows. When someone put out a record, “We’d put it in rotation, even 45s,” says Wood, now a local DJ, record collector and Taco Stand manager. He recalled hauling Pylon’s equipment on a long-weekend tour to Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.

“My senior year I pretty much stopped going to classes,” Wood admits with a laugh. “There was so much going on. It seemed like things were just exploding.”

—Mary Jessica Hammes is a writer living in Athens.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

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“In the early part of 2004, I received a phone call from Pylon guitarist Randy Bewley. He wanted to get the band back together.

The guys and I met and after some discussion, we decided to get together for fun. We all missed each other and missed playing music. In late July, Curtis (Crowe) came to practice at Nuci’s Space and said that he would have to leave Athens for a while to go to Hawaii to work on a new series called “Lost.” To keep our momentum, we decided that we would play before he left.

By our next practice, Michael (Lachowski) had a space lined up. It was at the corner of Hancock and Hull Street and belonged to Manhattan owner Joey Tatum. There wasn’t a sound system yet, so Randy called Herb Guthrie to bring one in and run sound. Curtis called Bill Berry and asked if he would loan him a drum kit.

I was a little nervous because I still didn’t have RHONDA FLEMING all of the lyrics re-memorized, so I typed them all Vanessa Briscoe Hay at up and put them in a notebook like the old days.

Pylon’s last show, HallowWe had an excellent practice that night. een 2008 in Atlanta.

On Thursday afternoon, Aug. 5, 2004, I called a few close friends to let them in on the secret.

Everyone was surprised. My daughter Hana informed me that WUOG was broadcasting a request for information about where our show was going to be that night.

I told her not to call, but Randy’s son Adam did call and he told the DJs where the show was taking place after they promised not to broadcast the time and location.

They didn’t broadcast it. They decided to go off the air instead when it was close to time for the show. I think that is one of the biggest compliments that we have ever been paid.

Sound check went well. People were already filtering into the space to listen and running past the windows. I had initially visualized a show with maybe 75 people. At this point, I realized that it was going to go over that estimate. I saw people that I had not seen for years who had driven in from from Atlanta. Michael had friends who started driving when they got off work in Tennessee and barely made the show.

The show completely sold out and there was a large crowd hanging out in the street watching us play through a side window, including my daughter Hana.

Curtis said that it was like an old plane that had been sitting around in a hangar for years. It cranked up and the engine still ran! The energy was wonderful and it felt like one of our early 1980’s shows. It was amazing.”

“Shockingly, none of the guys had long hair or looked like leftover hippies.

Unlike most of what passed for rock music at that time, there were no solos, no bass player, no noodley jamming, and nothing that could even be remotely considered musically complex,” says Walls, a guitarist who later formed Guadalcanal Diary and who now plays with the Woggles. “Despite their unorthodox approach, the audience was dancing like crazy. In fact, that seemed to be the whole point.”

“We were the tackiest band in Athens, Georgia,” says Cindy Wilson, who founded the B-52s with her brother Ricky, Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider and Keith Strickland. “We were just throwing things together and having fun with it.”

The Wilsons grew up in Athens, and Ricky learned to play guitar by watching a public television show. His little sister, Cindy, was his guinea pig—he’d give her parts to sing, and they’d make home recordings. After she graduated from high school, the two moved into a house together and partied with Strickland, Pierson and Schneider. Jam sessions led to the five forming a band, taking their name from a particular style of beehive hairdo and approaching music with a sense of humor and a firm commitment to fun.

—Vanessa Briscoe Hay, Pylon

JIMMY ELLISON

Pylon plays in 1979: from left to right, the late Randy Bewley (BFA ’85, BSEd ’95), Vanessa Briscoe Hay (BFA ’78), Michael Lachowski (BFA ’79) and Curtis Crowe (BFA ’84).

18 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

“In the summer of ’76,

Cindy Wilson now lives in Atlanta with husband Keith Bennett (BFA ’78) and their son and daughter. She remembers Ricky, who died in 1985, writing “Rock Lobster.”

“He said, ‘Come in here, you’ve got to listen to this riff. It’s the stupidest riff you’ve ever heard.’” she says, laughing.

“So we went in there, and of course it was great. It was catchy. He was just twisted that way.”

A year after the first show, the B-52s were one of the hottest club acts in New York. Encouraged by their success, bands like Pylon were sprouting in Athens.

Formed by four art students—guitarist Randy Bewley (BFA ’85, BSEd ’95), drummer Curtis Crowe (BFA ’84), singer Vanessa Briscoe Hay (BFA ’78) and bassist Michael Lachowski (BFA ’79)—Pylon also was known for its live shows and danceable pop but had an edgier sound than the B-52s. The band would go on to open for U2, R.E.M. and Talking Heads, touring the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom but never achieving mainstream success, in part because they distrusted and rejected offers from major labels. Though their approach to success was different than the B-52s—who signed with Warner Brothers in 1979—they shared a fundamental belief that anyone can make music.

“That’s part of what inspired Pylon— the idea that you could be in a band and not have a music background,” Lachowski says.

W

hen the B-52s played their first show, the song at the top of the Billboard charts was “Torn Between Two Lovers”

by Mary MacGregor. UGA was pulling in acts like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Heart. But Cindy Wilson and her friends were driving to Atlanta to see the Sex Pistols and Television. Punk had arrived, and bands like the Ramones rejected mainstream rock for a stripped-down, headfirst approach with anti-establishment lyrics and a do-it-yourself ethic.

The do-it-yourself attitude played well in Athens. Descriptions of the town during that time almost universally use the word “sleepy.” The lack of nightlife meant Lachowski could advertise shows with posters featuring only two words— “Pylon” and “Tuesday”—because every-

I was trying to graduate, working on getting married, investigating the viability of college kids opening the Georgia Theater as a music venue, and selling stereos at Hi-fi Buys on Broad St. All of this was far more responsibility than I was remotely qualified for. In fact more than a few lunch breaks were taken down the street at Bubber’s Bait Shop. I never saw any bait sold at Bubber’s.

One summer afternoon I was working at Hi-fi Buys and in walked two gentlemen and a woman. I quickly noticed that one of RICK O’QUINN the men was blind. I walked up to the people George Fontaine (BBA ’76) helped and asked if I could be of assistance (in to re-launch the Georgia Theatre those days Hi-fi Buys in Athens also had a as a music venue in the late ’70s. record store inside of the stereo store. I knew a lot more about records than I did about electronics, but I bluffed my way through as best I could).

The blind gentleman told me he was interested in purchasing a receiver, so I took them into the room where all the receivers were located, and he proceeded to have me play each one at a very low volume level. He would then turn to me and inform me which receivers had the best bass, midrange, and treble responses. I knew there was no bluffing or sales pitch that would work on this man. He was in control, and I was along for the ride.

Eventually, he settled for a Sony receiver. As we were completing the sale, I asked the man if he was a musician. He said, ‘Yes, I am a guitar picker from North Carolina, and my name is Doc Watson. This is my wife and my son Merle. Merle and I are playing here tonight.’

Merle passed away some years ago, but Doc is still out there pickin’ somewhere, and there isn’t a Doc Watson vinyl record that I don’t own.”

—George Fontaine (BBA ’76), co-owner New West Records

one automatically knew where and what time. People in Athens made their own fun, most often at parties.

“These over-the-top parties played like a bunch of clever art students spoofing a ’60s Hollywood bash, with stylistic nods to Federico Fellini’s ‘La Dolce Vita’ and Russ Meyer’s ‘Beyond the Valley of the Dolls,’” Jeff Walls says. “The early scene was self-consciously arty and theatrical, with lots of dress-up and play-acting (drugs were also certainly present), but it had a campy sense of humor that spun on a shoestring budget.”

Out of this climate came Athens’ first big wave of music that had a recognizable sound—sometimes described as jangle pop. Led by R.E.M. and bands like Dreams So Real and the Squalls, this new sound became identifiably “Athens” and

was documented by UGA art professor Jim Herbert in the 1987 film “Athens, Ga.: Inside/Out.”

“It was artists who were not musicians who decided to make their art through music,” Mike Mills says. “And their feeling was—as with the punk ethos of the time—you didn’t really have to know how to be good, you just had to do what was in your head and in your heart.

So that’s what a lot of these bands were doing back then. They were just creating art, but instead of a paintbrush or a chisel, they had a guitar or a piano. You got a lot of interesting and unique music out of that.”

I

nterview enough musicians in Athens, and a percentage of them—from past and present—will claim they can’t play

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

19

“The band house... that’s where the earliest memories came from and where daydreaming and living in the moment didn’t necessarily cancel each other out.

We were (at the time) four guys living on King Avenue with a kitchen full of band gear and a lot of time on our hands. At one point in the day, ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER we’d wake up, go into town for food and adventure (sometimes work).

KIM BANCROFT Then we’d find each other again— most likely at the Uptown Lounge or Widespread Panic’s John Bell performs during a three-night run at the back at the house. We put on our Classic Center in April 2000. least scratchy albums—I remember Warren Zevon and R.E.M. being the most resistant to damage. If someone had an inspiration we’d make our way to the kitchen, play off each other and see what would come of it. A lot of kidding around, a lot of beer.

Friends would stop by on a whim. If there was enough whimsy in the air that night, all of a sudden we’d be hosting a party. I don’t think we ever planned a party because so many spontaneous gatherings erupted. Fun for us, but we lived next door to a city councilman so Athens’ finest routinely and politely stopped by for a visit as well. We could ask 10 to 20 people to lower the overall volume but if there were more we’d usually have to shut our doors and turn the lights off for the night.

Returning home after one of our first road trips—probably to Clemson, Greenville, and Charlotte—our next door neighbors on the other side commented on how much our playing had improved. They didn’t know we had been out of town, letting another Athens band, the Landsharks, use the house for practice.

Kyle and Duck at the Uptown introduced us to Sunny and gave us our first piece of rock and roll security—a regular Monday night gig for what came through the door—$1 cover.

That was a big deal. Playing a whole night in front of people was a lot different than being back at the house. Our first show was over and we still owed the bar for our drink tab. Mike’s sister bailed us out on that. Later, Kyle said free draft beer could be part of the deal. We were honing our negotiation skills.

Early one summer UGA was in between sessions and the town was empty of students. It was lucky for us though, because with the kids gone the locals came out and we were maybe the only game in town. About three hundred plus folks came through. Widespread Panic was on its way... to Waffle House.

‘The Girl’s House’ had us over for dinner on Sundays.

Chicken wings. These were good friends that lived together on Buena Vista Street and looked after us. Mondays we ate yellow food (Waffle House). The rest of the week was ramen noodles, apples, hot dogs and an occasional pizza. Candles replaced electricity, blankets replaced gas, and the landlords were mostly patient. We were having a blast.

One day Sam, our manager to be, came to the house to hear us. He took an interest and helped us incorporate. The lights, heat and phone came back on line. Recordings were made, we stayed on the road for longer and more distant stretches, signed some contracts, leased some buses, got married and raised families.

—John Bell, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist, Widespread Panic

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their instruments. Dan Geller (BS ’96, MS ’98) is a veteran of the Athens music scene. He’s a member of three bands (the Agenda, Gold Party and Ruby Isle), cofounder of the Athens-based Kindercore label and long-time dj at Go Bar.

“It’s been the story of my life,” Geller says. “The one thing I don’t have time ever to do is really actually learn how to play music. I just kind of stumbled my way through it… I look back and it’s been over 10 years, but I still feel like I’m a novice when it comes to playing anything.”

Kyle Dawkins (BMus ’99) is a guitarist and member of both Maps and Transit and the Georgia Guitar Quartet. He graduated with a degree in music performance, but he likes the supportive atmosphere in Athens.

“There’s no pressure to be an expert on your instrument, which I think is awesome,” Dawkins says. “If you want to learn how to play an instrument, go for it. And if you want to start a band a week after you learn that instrument, go for it. You’re just encouraged, no matter what your skill level is.”

CORINNA STELLATINO

BRYAN SUTTER

Allison Weiss plays at The Firebird in St. Louis, Mo., on Dec. 22.

A UGA senior who will graduate in May with a degree in graphic design, Weiss released her second album in November.

Allison Weiss, a UGA senior studying graphic design, released her second album in November. She believes the Athens environment encourages creativity.

“Athens loves bands that are weirder and doing more innovative things,” she says. “You go out to see a band, and it’s just a bunch of dudes banging on stuff and making sounds with their amplifiers and people in the crowd are like, ‘Yea, this is awesome.’”

The lack of restrictions gives artists the freedom to experiment, Dawkins says.

“I think Pylon is a perfect example.

Randy from Pylon would tune his guitar all these weird ways, and he probably couldn’t tell you what the sheet music looked like, but it sounded great,” he says.

“That’s the only thing that matters. No matter how much training you have, at the end of the day if it sounds good it sounds good.”

R

.E.M.’s first taste of success came just two years after Mills and drummer Bill Berry, high school friends from Macon, enrolled at UGA in 1979. There they met singer Michael Stipe, also a UGA student, and guitarist Peter Buck. Stipe and Buck had bonded over records at music store Wuxtry, where Buck worked.

DOT PAUL

Modern Skirts performs at Herty Field as part of the Terry Tunes concert series in September 2006. Modern Skirts includes (left to right) John Swint (BS ’06), Phillip Brantley (BBA ’03), JoJo Glidewell and Jay Gulley (AB ’03). In 2008, just four years after forming, Modern Skirts served as the opening act for an R.E.M. show in Amsterdam.

The band released its first single, “Radio Free Europe,” in 1981, followed by the “Chronic Town” EP in 1982 and “Murmur” in 1983. They toured the Southeast constantly, sleeping on fans’ couches and playing whatever hole in the wall would have them. As the band’s touring radius expanded and college radio provided a boost, a lot of people started paying attention to Athens—and some decided to move here.

Guadalcanal Diary moved to Athens in 1984 after the band returned from an intense European tour and bassist Rhett Crowe (AB ’94) decided she was tired of living in Marietta. Her brother, Curtis, was Pylon’s drummer and lived in Athens as did Guadalcanal’s drummer, John Poe. Crowe at that time was dating Guadalcanal guitarist Jeff Walls, so she brought him with her and eventually singer Murray Attaway joined them.

Five Eight was similarly hijacked in 1987. The band, then known as The Reasonable Men, was considering a move to Brooklyn or Athens when singer/guitarist Mike Mantione’s songwriting partner moved to Athens—with their equipment.

The band followed, forming Five Eight the next year.

“There wasn’t anybody who knew

anything about music who didn’t know about Athens, Georgia,” Mantione says.

“The movie had been out in the previous summer—“Athens, Ga.: Inside/Out”—I had seen it and had fallen in love with that whole R.E.M. idea of touring the country in a van and playing like Jack Kerouac on the road.”

There were others, like John Bell, who watched the scene from nearby. Bell enrolled at UGA in 1981 and remembers watching R.E.M. hit its stride.

“They were a big influence, just watching them blow the doors off the music scene,” he says.

During his sophomore year Bell met Mike Houser (BS ’85), another UGA student and guitarist. A few years later, the two formed Widespread Panic with bassist Dave Schools and drummer Todd Nance, later adding percussionist Domingo “Sunny” Ortiz. (Houser died in 2002.)

R.E.M. may have made musicians more aware of Athens, but there were other factors that kept them here—among them the cheap cost of living, the availability of service industry jobs and a crowd of other musicians to work with.

In Panic’s early days, Bell and Nance painted houses to make money, while Houser made sandwiches at Gyro Wrap

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

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“It was during the 2004...

Athfest music festival that I ran into William “Duck” Anderson outside the Georgia Theatre. He was the owner of the Theatre and I knew him well from years of playing there in my college band.

I had since moved to Charlotte and was working as a cartographer. Duck looked particularly stressed that evening so I asked him what was wrong. His response was that he was too old to own a music venue anymore.

I offered to ‘solve all his problems’ and we retreated to his office to discuss the potential of him really selling the place.

He liked the idea that I was so connected and familiar with the room. We came to an informal agreement and I immediately set the plan into action. Just a few months later ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER I had gotten an investor, quit my job, moved Wilmot Greene, owner of the back to Athens, and was closing the deal.

Georgia Theatre, speaks to stuThe place was like a temple to me. I dents in UGA’s music business immediately set about renovating the Theatre program in December. and in just five short years had fixed almost everything there was to fix. The place was really looking and smelling great! It was an incredible experience running and renovating the Georgia Theatre. The connection between audience, band, staff, and venue was really unbelievable and kind of magical.

I’m doing everything I can to preserve that vibe during this rebuilding process so that generations to come can have that same experience we all had.”

—Wilmot Greene, owner, Georgia Theatre

The Georgia Theater was gutted by fire on June 19, 2009. To contribute to its restoration costs or to get an update on construction, go to www.georgiatheater.com

and Schools worked the door at the Uptown Lounge. The band had a regular gig there on Monday nights because no one else wanted that slot.

“They gave us free beer and whatever came in at the door” from the $1 cover charge, Bell says. When the band finished playing, they would take their money to Waffle House to have their one good meal of the week.

“I think that what attracts musicians and keeps them here is the sense of community that you have in Athens,” says producer John Keane, who’s worked extensively with R.E.M. and Widespread Panic. “The Athens music scene is a lot more diverse now because there are so many different types of bands, but it still feels very much like a community.”

Crowe also liked the sense of camaraderie.

22 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

“You could sit down and complain about how you didn’t make enough money to pay your electric bill,” she says. “It wasn’t a question of ‘Well, why don’t you just go get a job?’ Everybody understood why you were doing what you were doing, and what you had to give up in order to do that, and that was ok.”

And Athens musicians extend their support beyond their peers.

“The bands here are so supportive of organizations and causes and groups in town,” says Jeff Montgomery, co-founder of athensmusic.net. “Any time there’s a benefit, the first thing everyone does is say, ‘Let’s have a show, and who can we get to play?’ And bands do it. You never hear them griping about it—they’re more than willing to do it.”

B

y the time R.E.M. reached mainstream success in 1987 with the single “The One I Love” (from the album “Document,” their first that sold a million copies), Athens had changed. The Georgia Theatre had opened as a concert venue in 1978 with a show by Sea Level featuring Randall Bramblett. The 40 Watt Club also was founded in 1978 when Curtis Crowe and his roommate Bill Tabor renovated the third floor of a College Avenue building and christened it with a Halloween party. By 1987 the club, named after its original sole light source, had changed locations five times and would move once more in 1991 to its current location on Washington Street. Tyrone’s O.C. had burned down in 1982, but clubs like the Uptown Lounge, the Rockfish Palace and the Downstairs catered increasingly to local bands, drawing audiences in part from the UGA student body.

Secondary industries developed as the Athens music scene grew. Producers like John Keane began recording demos, later expanding to full studio services when computer technology revolutionized home recording. Labels like Doggone Records and later Kindercore made it possible to release an album from Athens. The agency Revolution specialized in public relations for music, launching spinoff Team Clermont. Managers like Troy Aubrey (ABJ ’94) of Nomad Artists began offering their services. Aubrey would also co-found athensmusic.net with Jeff Montgomery.

Athensmusic.net was created after Montgomery saw Macha perform in 1998, a show he calls “freaking amazing.” He and Aubrey wanted to find a way to help Athens bands like Macha promote themselves to a larger audience.

“Bands would put out records, and they’d sit in the trunk of their cars,” Montgomery says. “Literally. They’d have like 200 in the trunk of their car, and they didn’t know what to do with them besides taking them to [music stores] Big Shot and Wuxtry.”

Aubrey and Montgomery also got involved with AthFest, an annual music and arts festival designed to promote Athens music. The event was founded in 1997 by Jared Bailey (BBA ’84), former 40 Watt manager and founder of Flagpole, a weekly publication covering Athens arts

CHRIS BILHEIMER

Mike Mills, Michael Stipe and Peter Buck of R.E.M. perform live on March 24, 2008, at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

and entertainment. In 2009, AthFest featured about 200 acts in clubs and on three free outdoor stages. AthFest compilation cds (available at www.athfest.com) have featured artists like R.E.M., Vic Chesnutt, the Drive-By Truckers and Jack Logan.

Though the city has never conducted an official economic survey, a rough estimate in the late ’90s by Art Jackson (then with the Athens Downtown Development Authority) indicated that the music scene provided employment for up to 2,000 people—making it the county’s fourth largest employer. By Jeff Montgomery’s count, 95 albums were released by Athens acts during 2008. And the Flagpole Music Guide lists more than 800 musical acts, 37 recording/production companies, 36 venues and 16 management/promotion agencies in Athens.

“L

et’s go Outback tonight…”

That familiar jingle is rooted in the second wave of bands to gain notoriety outside of Athens. The Elephant 6 was a collective of musicians based in Athens and Boulder, Colorado, who formed several notable indie bands of the ’90s including Elf Power, Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel and of Montreal.

Elephant 6 bands were known for their somewhat interchangeable members, lo-fi recordings and a sound influenced by British psychedelia.

Formed in 1996, of Montreal would

release six albums—two with Geller’s Athens-based Kindercore label—before 2005’s “Sunlandic Twins” record would spawn the Outback Steakhouse jingle based on the song “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games.” Many Elephant 6 bands have dissolved—of Montreal and Elf Power are exceptions—but the movement drew people to Athens in the ’90s the same way R.E.M. drew people in the ’80s.

Lucas Jensen (MEd ’04, MEd ’09) was doing college radio in Starkville, Miss., when he fell in love with what he heard from the Elephant 6 and other Athens bands.

“To me it was a real lack of pretension,” says Jensen, who moved to Athens in 1998 and now is drummer for Venice Is Sinking. “It was just sitting on your front porch or being lost in the wilderness of Georgia … and deciding to make psychedelic records.”

“I could hear people giving a crap about what they were doing on a record, and that’s important.”

I

n 1996 R.E.M. re-signed with Warner Bros. for a reported $80 million. Despite achieving success that meant they could live wherever they wanted, the band had kept their headquarters in downtown Athens.

“The four of us all had a gut feeling that we didn’t want to leave,” Mike Mills

says. “We wanted to stay here where our friends were, and where our families were, and make the music that we loved.”

Stipe and Mills still maintain residences in Athens; Mills spends about 75 percent of his time here. Berry, who left the group in 1997, lives outside of Athens and Buck moved to the west coast in the late ’90s.

The band’s long-term presence in Athens has had an impact. A Sept. 10, 2006, article in the Athens Banner-Herald documented some of the ways they’ve influenced the community: owning historic homes in in-town neighborhoods; owning buildings that allow businesses with unique character, like Go Bar and The Grit restaurant, to thrive; helping to educate the community on issues like historic preservation; and providing direct financial support for a variety of organizations.

“There’s been no entity more broadly supportive of the community than R.E.M.,” Tim Johnson, coordinator for Family Connection/Communities in Schools of Athens, told the Banner-Herald.

“I can’t think of any nonprofit I know of that they haven’t had some impact on.”

Athens Mayor Heidi Davison says she can’t think of any aspect of community development that R.E.M. hasn’t touched.

“Thanks to their strong philanthropy, groups promoting human rights, animal welfare, music and arts, tending to the poor, alternative transportation, a clean environment, education, after-school programs, historic preservation and more have benefited, as have candidates who strongly support these issues.”

“This is a fantastic community—always has been, and it’s always been good to us,” Mills says. “It’s been our joy and pleasure to be able to give something back.”

That sentiment has extended to working with local musicians in the studio and hiring Athens bands to open for them on tour. Modern Skirts formed in 2004 and just four years later opened for R.E.M. in Amsterdam. JoJo Glidewell (guitar/piano/vocals) remembers how strange it was to be confronted with the worldwide fame of guys you see around your hometown.

“This is one of the biggest bands in the world… and they get up on stage and say ‘We want to thank Modern Skirts,’ and it’s just insane,” he says. “You can’t

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

23

JOHN MCDONALD

Venice Is Sinking performs during AthFest 2008.

ATHFEST — June 23-27, 2010 www.athfest.com

Started in 1997 to promote local music and arts, AthFest is a family-friendly event featuring 200 bands in clubs and on three free outdoor stages. It includes an artist market, film events like a local music video competition and KidsFest, where children enjoy activities like pottery, bungee and a petting zoo. If you can’t make it to the event, don’t worry—a compilation cd of local bands will be available May 11 at www.athfest.com. This year’s cd includes The Whigs, Hope for Agoldensummer, Timber, Spring Tigers, The Incredible Sandwich and others. Proceeds benefit AthFest, a nonprofit, and its year-round efforts in music and arts education.

get your head around it. And then you go home and you’re like, ‘Did that even really happen?’”

“It was definitely hard to go back to playing in Knoxville, Tenn., for two drunk hippies after that.”

F

or the most part Athens exists in a little bit of a bubble. It’s still a somewhat sleepy, isolated town, but that isolation has allowed artists to pursue their visions off the beaten path. There have been other college towns—Lawrence, Kan., for example—that have had vibrant music scenes, but over time Athens has proven to be special.

“I just don’t know why Athens had a higher percentage of really good bands than most other college towns,” Mike Mills says. “Maybe it was the quality of the art school. You could blame Jim Herbert. I don’t know.”

24 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Herbert says answers to this question are less forthcoming as time goes by, but he offers a few suggestions.

“Coalescing cultural cacophony as the hippie and frat values collided, mixed and moved on. Or as others have said, there was a certain stressed and edgy breakdown that led to breakthroughs.

Perhaps social fragmentation helps the arts bust out,” he says. “But no, to tell you the truth the music scene was all just the result of kudzu and sweat and intense naked play.”

Perhaps the why doesn’t matter—the Athens music scene now is self sustaining, and every once in a while the national media spotlight shines this way. Sometimes it’s focused on a movement like the Elephant 6 collective, and sometimes it’s focused on an event, like Widespread Panic’s 1998 street show in downtown Athens that drew 80,000 to 100,000 fans.

Regardless of the attention paid by the rest of the world, bands have continued to form, rehearse, play shows, play benefits, record, tour and break up.

The past year has been a tough one in Athens. There were several deaths— Pylon’s Randy Bewley in February 2009 and Vic Chesnutt in December—that made national news, as did the burning of the Georgia Theatre in June. And there were other deaths that didn’t draw the same kind of attention but had an effect in the close-knit Athens music community.

Jon Guthrie, guitarist/bassist with The Michael Guthrie Band and Vigilantes of Love, died in September, followed by drummer Jerry Fuchs (BFA ’01) in November. Fuchs was a member of The Juan MacLean, !!! and Athens band Maserati and played with LCD Soundsystem, Moby and MSTRKRFT.

“I’ve seen a lot of coming together and realizing that we don’t need to take what we do or each other for granted,” Lucas Jensen says. “It’s like a big family— a big, weird, dysfunctional family.”

For Jester Harold Williams, the relationships he’s made during his career as a musician are more important than anything else.

“I think having the same group of friends for 50 years is pretty amazing,” he says. “To this day, my best friends in life are the guys I played music with.” GM

GET MORE www.uga.edu/gm Download music by more than a dozen Athens bands—including new songs from Five Eight, Modern Skirts and The Bearfoot Hookers—at Georgia Magazine’s Web site. www.flagpole.com Check Flagpole’s Guide to Athens for a Music History Walking Tour and a list of Essential Athens Albums, as chosen by the alternative weekly. www.athensmusic.net The largest collection of Athens music for sale anywhere, including rare and out-of-print releases.

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visit www.indigoathens.com for a schedule of upcoming events GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

25

The Hugh Hodgson School of Music has an ambitious new director and lofty goals for the future

26 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

by Lori Johnston (ABJ ’95)

W

A decade later, Holloway knows she found her true calling, having performed with some of the biggest stars and at some of the grandest venues.

As one of the country’s largest collegiate music programs, the Hodgson School of Music continues to prepare students for careers as school band, orchestra and choral directors, college professors, and performers of classical, opera, jazz and even rock music. High-profile groups such as the Redcoat Band showcase the musical talents of music and non-music majors. Students prepare for careers in education by student teaching in the public schools and teaching toddlers, kids, college students and adults in the Community Music School, an outreach to the area for beginners and lifetime musicians, along with the String Project, promoting the study of string instruments for young children.

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

hen Jennifer Holloway came to the University of Georgia in 1996, she planned a career as a music educator. She studied the euphonium and voice, and enjoyed folk music and the drum corps.

A few years later, when the Hugh Hodgson School of Music and the Classic Center formed the Athena Grand Opera Company, Holloway auditioned. The production was Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” and Holloway played Third Lady.

The next year, the company produced Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus,” and Holloway was Prince Orlofsky. She recalls Gregory Broughton, associate professor of voice, telling her, “You could really have a career in this.”

“I was like, hey, people really get paid to do this,” Holloway says.

“It just so happened that around the right time in my life, I really started concentrating on it and had good instruction.”

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

27

SPECIAL

SPECIAL

SPECIAL

NANCY EVELYN

Hugh Hodgson, a UGA graduate, became UGA’s first music professor in 1928.

Roger Dancz was among Hodgson’s hires and stayed with the school for 35-plus years.

Fred Mills, who died last year, had an international reputation that drew students to UGA.

With all these ongoing programs, the new decade is a pivotal time for the school, which brought on a new director last summer and this year could see new leadership in four critical areas—trombone, viola, percussion and choir.

Director Dale Monson, who came to UGA in July from Brigham Young University in Utah, does not hide his ambition.

“This is a watershed moment in the history of this school,” Monson says. “The whole faculty feels that.

Ten years from now I think we’ll be in a much different place.”

The Hodgson School has had a number of those moments since Hugh Hodgson, a former student, was named Georgia’s first music professor in 1928. Four degree programs in music were developed between 1930 and 1941, including the master of fine arts. In 1938, the Fine Arts Building opened, signaling the university’s commitment to the program. That same year, Hodgson started a chamber music festival that brought nationally known groups to campus for more than two decades.

In 1951, he created a high school music festival that signaled UGA’s support for statewide music education.

In the 1981-82 academic year, the department was elevated to school

status. By 1995, it had expanded to fill a new 100.000-square-foot building, which opened that year as part of the Performing and Visual Arts Complex on East Campus. In 2005, the school was named for Hugh Hodgson.

Hodgson laid the groundwork for the school’s growth by hiring faculty who would be key to the school’s success.

One of those, Roger Dancz, came in on a one-year temporary appointment in the mid-1950s but stayed for more than 35 years, energizing the Redcoat Band as it increased in size from 99 to more than 420 members and grew in stature nationally and internationally.

“What he brought was an incredible enthusiasm and an incredible talent that just got focused in on one thing—the Redcoat Band and the University of Georgia,” says his son, Steve Dancz, who as a child would be in his crib in the end zone at Sanford Stadium while his dad rehearsed the band and his mom, Phyllis, coached the Georgettes.

Jazz trumpet player Glenda Smith (BMus ’88), who has performed with the “American Idol” band and for the Emmys, and co-leads several jazz groups, came to UGA to work with Roger Dancz, who offered her a scholarship.

“I got to Georgia wanting to be a high school band director, and I left wanting to play,” says Smith, wearing a Georgia shirt in her Hollywood home on a rare day off. “All my playing experiences were vital to that decision.”

Faculty are the key to building a nationally recognized program, Monson emphasizes. Typically, nonmusic majors look at schools based on the reputation of the institution or individual programs, Monson says.

“That is not how music students make their decisions,” he says. “They make a decision based on a person” who will be their teacher.

Baritone Frederick Burchinal, a regular performer at the Metropolitan Opera; violinist Levon Ambartsumian, who studied and taught at the Moscow Conservatory; and flutist Angela Jones-Reus, a former longtime member of the Stuttgart Philharmonic, who occasionally performs with the Berlin Philharmonic, are among the many top-shelf faculty that students have sought out at UGA.

Hiring strong faculty replacements for two faculty members who died last year—trumpeter Fred Mills, founding member of the Canadian Brass, and saxophone professor Kenneth Fischer—is a priority for Monson.

28 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

The Redcoat Marching Band performs for the crowd at Sanford Stadium in fall 2009.

Another is increasing scholarship support for students and developing more career and performance opportunities for students who hope to make performance a career.

The Wind Ensemble’s recent performance at the College Band Directors National Association conference in Austin, Texas, is one such opportunity.

“We want to do more recording.

We want to do more travel in the region, state and internationally,” says John Lynch, who was named director of bands in 2007.

More opportunities were the reason doctoral student Amy Knopps came to UGA after getting her undergraduate and master’s degrees in the Midwest. Lynch was her mentor at Kansas before he joined the UGA faculty in 2007.

COURTESY OF HARGRETT RARE BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS

The Cadet Band, shown here in 1908, was a precursor to the Redcoat Band.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

29

A community of music On a Monday afternoon in the office of UGA’s Community Music School in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music building, 6-year-old Clara Miller positions her violin underneath her chin and holds her bow in her right hand.

Miller begins to play a variation of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” At times during the half-hour lesson, Kristin Jutras, director of the Community Music School, calmly asks her to repeat songs or lines. Jutras offers Clara tips and sometimes demonstrates what she wants her to do.

At one point, she compares Clara’s DOT PAUL hand position to a clam closing its shell. When the child misses a line in Community Music School director one song, Jutras tells her that line is Kristin Jutras enjoys a lesson with Clara Miller, 6, a student from Athens important, “like the jelly in a sandAcademy. wich.”

She also praises Clara, telling her, “I wish I could take a picture of your bow hold and show everyone.”

The Community Music School, which serves more than 200 children and adults from Athens and surrounding areas, is one way the Hugh Hodgson School of Music reaches out to the public. About 150 of those students take private lessons, another 20 are in beginning guitar and piano classes, 20 to 30 kids are in Kindermusik early childhood classes and five to 10 are in music therapy classes for children with special needs.

The Hodgson School also offers the String Project, which provides ensemble instruction in violin, viola, cello and bass to kids at a cost well below what they would pay for private instruction. The Georgia Children’s Chorus provides choral training and performance opportunities for local children.

While a service to the community, the programs have a practical use: They help train future music teachers for the classroom and private studios.

“The school was started as a lab for music education students to get practical teaching experience,” Jutras says.

The teachers in the Community Music School are mostly graduate music education majors or graduate performance majors; however, there are a few undergraduate teachers and a few professionals like Jutras. The teachers are either paid at an hourly rate or teach for CMS as part of an assistantship. A few of the teachers, like Jutras, are specially trained in the Suzuki Method, which is specific to working with young children.

At times, the program also is able to contribute to scholarships and assistantships for students in the School of Music, which reflects another way it helps train future music teachers. Although children ages 4 to 10 comprise the largest group of students, Jutras says her goal is to increase the adult enrollment through other organizations, such as the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UGA.

“We’re a very relaxed school,” she says. “We’re here so that people can enjoy music, regardless of their age, skill level or previous music experience. I would like for us to be a much bigger presence in the community.”

—Lori Johnston

30 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

“For me, the University of Georgia was the opportunity to be in a bigger program,” Knopps says.

“We’ve got a lot of different students involved, whether you’re a music major at the highest level or a non-music major involved in the marching band, concert band or basketball band.”

Monson also is interested in increasing the school’s commercial opportunities and expanding the visibility of the school by broadcasting UGA faculty and student performances on radio, TV and the Internet.

“We cannot, and must not, be isolated from the national artistic scene if we are to rise to our potential,” Monson says.

Other goals include boosting the chamber music program, purchasing instruments such as a concert organ for Hodgson Hall, completing the Redcoats marching field facility and building on the school’s music therapy program, perhaps in conjunction with the Medical College of Georgia/UGA Medical Partnership.

The faculty welcomes Monson’s ambition for the school, says Jean Martin-Williams, who has taught horn at UGA for 20 years. Hiring a director from outside of the Hodgson School was a seismic event, she says.

“Bringing in someone from the outside always causes some unrest, but in this case, in a good way,” Martin-Williams says. “We need to respect the past but not be afraid to do things in a new way that is appropriate for our future.”

Ultimately, Monson says he would like to see music, along with all the fine arts programs at UGA, grow to become a greater presence on campus and on the national level.

“Our mission is to become one of the great music schools in the country, where we can be ever more effective in educating and promoting the careers of young musicians, building a deeper love for music

through the state and nation,” he says.

“I personally feel, as do many others, that (Hodgson’s) legacy is crucial for the school. His vision really was to promote the appreciation for the arts.” GM

—Lori Johnston is a writer living in Watkinsville.

GET MORE To learn more about the programs offered by the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, go to www.music.uga.edu.

If you would like to make a gift to the school, please contact Suzi Wong, development director, at (706) 410-6876 or swong@franklin.uga.edu.

JACKIE REEDY

The night before his performance at the Morton Theatre, Tituss Burgess spends some time giving advice to Cedar Shoals High School and UGA students who hope to become performers.

He’s a part of it, New York, New York

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

In addition to the community music school, some UGA musicians volunteer their time to share their music with groups in the Athens area. Here, faculty member Arvin Scott presents a “Drumming for Success” class to kids at the Boys & Girls Club in Monroe.

Tituss Burgess (AB ’01) snaps his fingers in a zig-zag motion through the air as he hurries down the aisle toward the Morton Theatre stage.

“Whew, I haven’t been in here since before I graduated,” he says. His last performance in the Morton Theatre was in “Big River” over a decade ago as a UGA undergraduate.

Now, a Broadway star with roles in such musicals as “The Little Mermaid,” “Jersey Boys” and “Good Vibrations,” Burgess was back in Athens in February to kick off the Morton Theatre’s centennial celebration with his one-man show, “Tituss Burgess…One Night Only!”

The night before his performance, Burgess spoke with students from Cedar Shoals High School, also his alma mater, and UGA students who hope to someday make it big in New York City.

“Athens helped me to do this. Pink Morton helped me to do this—I learned here my way around a stage,” Burgess says. “I think it is important for my community to see what it has produced and for youth to know someone tangible, right in front of them, who did it and made it happen.”

Countering his animated and lighthearted spirit with a frank and honest message, Burgess told students not to pursue acting unless they “burned for it.” He talked about the hardships of surviving in New York City, emphasizing the need to pinch pennies early and find a flexible day job that would allow time for auditioning.

Aspiring actors and actresses should attend casting calls for roles they are not necessarily right for, just to get their names out there so they can be considered for other roles, he recommended.

“In New York everyone can sing and act. You have gifted individuals all around you,” Burgess says. “So, first you have to live. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.”

—Jackie Reedy

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

31

Widespread Panic guitarist and lead singer John Bell performs during a guest lecture for students in the Music Business Certificate Program.

32 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Let’s get down to business

shall we

Athens is a living lab for students in UGA’s Music Business Certificate Program

I

by Kelly Simmons

t is the first day of fall semester classes, and students in the Music Business Certificate Program are filing into the Chapel to hear a special guest. After a few perfunctory announcements and a brief introduction, Widespread Panic guitarist and lead singer John Bell walks onstage.

Dressed in a loose-fitting yellow shirt and jeans, a medallion around his neck, he sits in the straight back chair in front of a microphone, his guitar at his side.

He’s nervous—the Chapel is an intimate venue compared to the 20,000-seat arenas where the band has

performed for the past decade.

To the delight of the students, he picks up his guitar. The class starts with an acoustic version of “Already Fried.”

But for the next hour, Bell, a UGA student from 1981 to about 1986, mostly talks, telling the audience a little bit about the music business: how he got into it and how he made it work.

“I think one of the hippest things about the music business is there are systems and ways of doing things that are in place and avenues that are traveled—and systems that

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

Music Business Certificate Program Director Bruce Burch goes over some announcements at the start of his Fundamentals of the Music Business class.

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

33

DOT PAUL

Dan Hesketh, a music business student, helps singer/songwriter Mike Dekle with his sound check prior to a music-in-the round presentation at the Rialto Room in the Hotel Indigo.

folks agree that ‘are the way to do things.’ It’s good to recognize that stuff,” he says. “But there’s also such an opportunity in the music world to step out of the box and create your own job… If you see something in your mind’s eye of how you can apply yourself and how you can fit it in the music world, that’s yours to do.”

O

ver the next few months, students will hear from R.E.M. manager Bertis Downs (JD ’81), Georgia Theatre owner Wilmot Greene (BS ’94, MS ’00), producer John Keane and a host of other professionals in the music industry, who will share their

34 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

experience and tips on how to break into and stay in the business.

For the students—who come from the Terry College, the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, and other departments in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences—the program is an introduction to the music industry, beyond the people who write and perform the music.

“We’re presented with so many different opportunities we didn’t even know were jobs,” says Mary Ellen Klein, a Japanese language and literature major from Atlanta.

As part of the program, Klein, a singer/songwriter, works as an intern for John Keane, whose Athens studio has recorded R.E.M., the Indigo Girls, Widespread Panic and Vic Chesnutt, to name but a few.

She spends part of her time editing Keane’s instructional videos and learning about the technology behind music recording. It’s an exciting place, she says. “Who knows what band is recording downstairs?”

he idea for the Music Business Certificate Program began to take shape in 2002 when Bruce Burch (BSEd ’75), whose brother was a member of the Terry Alumni Board, approached then-Dean George Benson about starting the interdisciplinary program. A year later, Steve Dancz (BMus ’80), director of the jazz program at the Hodgson School of Music, brought a similar idea to Benson.

Both Burch and Dancz had struggled in the early days of their music careers and wanted to better prepare students for the road ahead. “It would

T

have changed my life,” Dancz says of the program, had it been available to him.

“This is a very competitive industry,” he says. “Everybody in the world wants to be in the music business.”

Benson liked the idea, but had no money to fund it. If it were going to happen, it would have to be privately funded.

So, Dancz and Burch hit the streets to find potential funders.

“Bruce and I spent a year driving around Georgia talking to anyone who had 50 cents in their pocket,” Dancz recalls.

They hit pay dirt in 2005, when a friend of Burch’s from Nashville mentioned the idea of a music business program at UGA to George Fontaine (BBA ’76), co-owner of the Los Angeles-based record label New West.

The idea intrigued Fontaine, who as an undergraduate booked bands for his fraternity and had helped lease and renovate the Georgia Theatre as a music venue.

“I had a desire to do that, and I thought I’d see what this guy had to say,” Fontaine recalls. “It was definitely one of those meetings where I felt comfortable Bruce was the guy to start this program up.”

In the meantime, Burch says, he and Dancz had been building support for the program on campus and were ready for it to be funded.

“Once we got to George it took two phone calls and one face-to-face meeting and he was in,” Burch recalls.

“We’d had time to build consensus.

We had a good plan in place.”

Fontaine’s initial gift of $750,000 got the program, a partnership between the Terry College and Hodgson School, off the ground. Twenty-seven students enrolled in the first music business class, offered in the spring 2006 semester. Another 50 enrolled the following fall. By May more than

PAUL EFLAND

Above: Music business students Billy McKee and Allison Fite discuss CD sales at a Randall Bramblett concert in 2009 at Ashford Manor.

Below: Jordan Henry, a music business student, works the mixing console for the Bramblett show.

PAUL EFLAND

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

35

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

Music business program student Mary Ellen Klein goes over some scales with Kelandria Howard (left) and Danyelle Randolph, both 12, at the Athens Boys & Girls Club. In addition to school and internships, Klein volunteers as a voice instructor at the club.

150 students will have earned certificates through the rigorous program, which requires coursework in accounting and time-consuming externships in the music industry. Currently 189 students are enrolled in the program or are in the music business introductory class.

Earlier this year, Fontaine made another pledge to the program, this time $825,000 from his personal funds and $150,000 from his family foundation.

“I think it’s been great. I’ve got a son that just went through the program,” Fontaine says. “There are a whole lot of kids getting jobs in the music business at a time when it’s hard to get jobs in the music business.”

The program, one of a kind at a public flagship university, has gar-

36 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

nered national attention for the Terry College.

“Every business school needs a way to distinguish itself,” says Terry College Dean Robert Sumichrast.

“Our goal for the Terry College is national prominence and music business can be a part of that.”

N

ot much is happening at 3 p.m. on a Friday at the Rialto Room, one of Athens’ newest music venues in the basement of the Hotel Indigo.

A few students are hanging out on the cushioned chairs in the bar area of the club. Inside, a crew is setting up for a sound check before the show, which will feature songwriters Greg Barnhill, Joanna Cotten, Mike Dekle and Will Robinson performing in the round.

Dan Hesketh, a student from Kennesaw in the music business program,

is part of that crew and is checking microphones as well as cameras set up to record the performance. Hesketh says he’s had experience working in a music studio and now is learning about live shows.

“That’s what’s good about this program,” he says. “Whatever you want to do, they’ll help you do.”

The students did much of the work in anticipation of the show, marketing it to the community, selling tickets and even setting up chairs. Part of the planning included determining who the audience for this particular show would be.

“This group is popular with older adults,” explains Kendra Tanner, a marketing major from Pearson, Ga. “And it’s a fancy venue, so we were looking for fancy people.”

A big part of the program is

PAUL EFLAND

Steve Dancz, director of jazz studies in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, was a co-founder of the Music Business Certificate Program at UGA.

matching students with internships that will help them learn about an area they may be interested in.

Students have worked locally at the Rialto and the Melting Point, for local producers and marketers and for bands.

“I don’t think a lot of people knew what they wanted to do,” says Tanner, who spent a summer working for a public relations firm. “I found out that’s not what I want to do.”

I

n addition to the internships, the program also offers a revolving door of guest speakers who can give students the inside scoop on the positions they may hope to one day hold.

Through Burch, Dancz and Music Business Program Coordinator Keith Perissi, students have access to a wealth of experience at all levels of the music business. Burch had a successful career as a singer-songwriter in Nashville before joining EMI Music Publishing as creative director. Dancz, who left the music business program last year, composes musical scores for television and film, including numerous original works for National Geographic productions. Perissi toured nationally and internationally for 15 years as bass player for the rock band Cigar Store Indians, which is how he met Burch.

The three offer their own experience as well as a vast network of contacts in Atlanta, Nashville, New York and Los Angeles. Guest lecturers have included singer Corey Smith,

producer/songwriter Dallas Austin, Widespread Panic drummer Sunny Ortiz and Fontaine.

“You can’t teach this in a classroom,” Burch says. “It’s a learning lab.”

“What I tell them is you’ve got to know a little bit about everything … and you’ve got to sell yourself.”

About a quarter of the students in the program have gotten full-time jobs as a result of their internships, he says. Graduates are now working for such heavyweights as the Warner Music Group in New York, the William Morris Agency in Nashville, and Live Nation in Atlanta.

Stephanie Mundy Self (BBA/ BMus ’07) landed a job as an account executive with Flood, Bumstead, McCready & McCarthy, a business management firm in Nashville, after graduation. In that role, she helps manage insurance needs and tax matters for such high profile clients as Taylor Swift, Pearl Jam and Kelly Clarkson.

Mundy, a Greenville, S.C., native who came to UGA on a music scholarship, decided to pursue a business degree as a way to stay connected to the music industry.

“I love singing but I didn’t think I had what it took to be a professional musician,” she says. “I wanted to stay in music somehow.”

She was one of the students in the inaugural music business certificate program class in 2006. Her initial inclination was to pursue a career in entertainment insurance. But the bulk of those jobs are in Los Angeles or New York, cities that “were just too big for me,” Mundy says.

During a summer internship in Nashville at Sony/ATV Music Publishing she met another student who went to work for Flood, Bumstead, McCready & McCarthy. Her interest in business management already had been piqued by an Atlanta-based

business manager who had spoken to one of her classes. She applied and was hired, starting work just two days after commencement.

Her days vary. In the summer and fall she’s busy lining up insurance protection for musicians while they are on the road. This time of year she’s gathering documents to help prepare their tax returns. Occasionally she’ll go on the road with a client to see a performance.

“I didn’t know if it was a good fit,” she says now. “Turns out it was.”

A

thens is a “petri dish” of sorts for a program like this, with its reputation for producing great artists, the number of venues in town that promote live music and the array of businesses that support the music industry, Burch says.

“We’ve pretty much got students involved with every venue in town,” he says.

The music and recording industry is changing fast, Burch says, and students here are on the ground level watching it happen. They see the bands working the small gigs to try and catch a break. And they’ve gotten to see acts like Corey Smith, who opted for a do-it-yourself breakthrough by producing his own CDs and distributing them for free to build a fan base.

“You couldn’t do the program like we do it here in a place like Idaho,” Burch says. “It’s a living laboratory.” GM

GET MORE To learn more about the Music Business Certificate Program, go to www. terry.uga.edu/musicbusiness.

If you would like to make a gift to the program, please contact Heather Malcom, director of corporate and community relations, at (706) 542-7668 or hmalcom@terry.uga.edu.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

37

NOTES CLASS

Music disciple UGA music grad has found success in Christian rock, winning a Grammy as part of the group Third Day

by Lori Johnston (ABJ ’95) Scotty Wilbanks spent his college nights and weekends playing in clubs, churches, weddings and at other gigs across the Southeast.

Back then, his audiences didn’t care that he was a student majoring in music education at UGA’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music. They cared that Wilbanks knew how to sing and entertain them on the saxophone, piano and keyboards. They didn’t realize that his talents were being honed and developed by day at UGA, during a period of his life that Wilbanks calls crucial to his success as the keyboard player for the Grammy-winning band Third Day and as a Grammy-nominated, Dove AwardSPECIAL winning record producer.

SCOTTY WILBANKS “I took my last exam and literally left and got on a tour bus that night,” says Wilbanks, who lives in suburban Atlanta.

That was to be a roadie with Christian group NewSong, which invited Wilbanks a couple of months later to join the group, performing for larger audiences than the Athens clubs where he got his start.

“The University of Georgia was one of those dominos in my life that had to be in place. It launched me into NewSong and from there into working on other people’s records, then to Third Day,” he says.

The demanding music degree program equipped Wilbanks, who came to UGA as a saxophonist, for his work touring with bands and as a producer for groups including Grammy nominees After Edmund and DecembeRadio, also recipients of Dove Awards, the hallmark of the Christian music industry. His 2009 touring schedule took him from London to Slovakia to South Africa.

“The biggest thing at Georgia was it forced me to really focus on the craft, performing and just the discipline of practicing every day for hours,” Wilbanks says.

Even years later, Wilbanks finds he uses UGA training as he works on arrangements and melodies with younger, up-and-coming artists in the business.

“The degree comes into play subconsciously,” he says. “When I’m in a position where I need that knowledge, it just comes to my brain really fast.”

—Lori Johnston is a writer living in Watkinsville.

Corrells take award for giving

Compiled by Jackie Reedy and Paige Varner

Pete Corell (BBA ’63) and his wife Ada Correll (BSEd ’63) will be honored next month as the Outstanding Philanthropists of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. The Corrells were recognized for their giving to Emory University and their help with Grady Memorial Hospital’s financial crisis. The Corrells last year were named Philanthropists of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater Atlanta Chapter.

1960-1964

Carl E. Brack (BSF ’60, MAExt ’69) was inducted into the Southeast Region Conservation Hall of Fame. Jim Purcell (BBA ’64) is one of 13 business people starting a bank in Elberton and Hartwell that has received preliminary approval from the FDIC and the state of Georgia. Doyle Shaw (BBA ’64) of Decatur retired from DeKalb County government after 33 years of service. He was director of purchasing and contracting and chief procurement officer for the county.

1965-1969

Larry Corry (DVM ’66) is serving a one-

38 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

year term as president of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

After his term ends in August he will remain on the board through summer 2011 as immediate past president.

Elizabeth Bowen Sponcler (AB ’68) and Kelly Jones (BSFCS ’95) of Dalton are on the Board of Trustees for the Whitfield Healthcare Foundation.

1970-1974

Leerie T. Jenkins Jr. (BLA ’70), chairman and chief executive officer of Reynolds, Smith and Hills Inc. is on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Jacksonville, Fla., branch. Richard Jacobson (BBA ’71) of Tampa, Fla., a shareholder and leader of the Interna-

ALUMNI PROFILE tional Tax Practice Group, was appointed Vice Chair-Americas for Referral Promotion by the TerraLex Legal Network. Jo Hatcher (BSHE ’72), a psychotherapist and owner of “Jo Hatcher Retreats” from Davis, Calif., is a Master Certified Retreat Coach. Safei El-Deen A. Hamed (MLA ’73) is the director of Landscape Architecture/Landscape Studies Graduate Programs at Chatham University in Pittsburgh. Linda Ledbetter (AB ’73) is the 2009 Ms. Georgia Senior. Burgett H. Mooney III (BBA ’73) of Rome, Ga., was elected to the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association board of directors. Earl Barrs (BSFR ’74) and Wanda Barrs (BSHE ’74) received the 2009 national “Tree Farmer of the Year” award for their sustainable forestry practices on “Gully Branch,” their 1500-acre property near Cochran. Mary Jane Morris (BSEd ’74) is the Teacher of the Year for the Salt Lake City School District. Dr. Henry Patton Jr. (BS ’74) of Newton Medical Center was appointed by Gov. Sonny Perdue to the Georgia Advisory Council for Public Health.

1975-1979

Michael Haggerty (BBA ’75) of Dallas, Texas, was named to the Best Lawyers in America for 2009 for the field of real estate law. He was also selected as one of Texas Monthly’s Texas Super Lawyers in 2008. He is a partner in Jackson Walker’s Dallas office and is currently head of the Jackson Walker Financial Services practice group. Bernard Leonard (BBA ’75) is the vice chairman of the National Chicken Council. Al Hodge (BBA ’77) of Rome, Ga., was chosen as one of Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Who’s Who in Education. Douglas Powell (BBA ’78) of Rowlett, Texas, graduated with a Ph.D. in leadership and church ministry from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and was hired as an adjunct professor at Dallas Baptist University in the Graduate School of Leadership.

Alex Rankin (BBA ’78) and wife Diane live in High Point, N.C. Alex became a USAF jet instructor pilot and earned his MBA in 1981. He was a Boeing 767 pilot for Delta Airlines until his retirement in 1989. Sam Silverstein (BBA ’78) of St. Louis, Mo., is the 2008-9 president of the National Speakers Association.

Sam speaks internationally on account-

New West goes East After stints in L.A. and Atlanta, George Fontaine Jr. is back in Athens promoting local musicians

by Jackie Reedy George Fontaine Jr. (ABJ ’04) shares his father’s passion for music, love for the University of Georgia and Athens, and calling to discover young talent.

Following in the footsteps of George Fontaine Sr. (BBA ’76), owner of Austin, Texasbased recording label New West Records, the younger ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER Fontaine now heads New West GEORGE FONTAINE JR. Records’ Athens office, the company’s new shipping and distribution operations center. Fontaine originally moved to Los Angeles to work for New West, but after a short stint devising marketing plans, helping with advertising and running street teams, he realized he missed living in the South.

In 2006, Fontaine landed a job in Atlanta with Live Wire, working on radio promotions and getting music onto the airwaves. He says he would drive to New York to meet with radio stations and disc jockeys “just to have that crucial face-to-face interaction.”

“It was a far drive, but heading home and hearing them play our music on the radio… that was a good feeling,” he says.

Three years later, New West Records President and founder Cameron Strang approached him about opening an office in Athens. Strang reasoned that an Athens office would make shipping and receiving more efficient because New West distributes all its U.S. records and DVDs through RED Distribution, which has a plant in Carrollton.

“That was the practical reason,” Fontaine says with a smile. “The real reason was that we had an itch to be in Athens. There is something about the creativity here, and we wanted to tap into that next round of young talent.”

New West opened its office on Meigs Street in December 2009. Since then, Fontaine’s schedule has been anything but typical—checking out live shows, handling marketing and new artist development, and promoting the original motion picture soundtrack “Crazy Heart,” featuring “The Weary Kind”

by Ryan Bingham and songs sung by Jeff Bridges, who won a 2010 Golden Globe award for the film.

New West will continue its strong relationship with the UGA Music Business Certificate Program, hiring interns and giving them practical experience promoting New West artists, Fontaine says. Recently, New West and UGA students worked cooperatively on marketing and tour management projects with local musicians Randall Bramblett and Benji Hughes.

Fontaine says he hopes to eventually create a recording studio in conjunction with the Athens office.

“We want this to be a good creative center for artists to come through and feel comfortable to write and record and feel welcome,” he says.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

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CLASSNOTES

Champions. In a word, a fitting way to describe the Georgia Bulldogs. During the past five years University of Georgia athletic teams have won 11 National Championships and 17 Southeastern Conference titles, while regularly ranking among the nation’s most successful athletics programs. As great as such accomplishments are, there’s another way to measure our success—and that’s by the achievements of our school’s graduates.

To kick off 2010, the Alumni Association held the inaugural “Bulldog 100: Fastest Growing Bulldog Businesses” awards banquet. More than 400 companies Vic Sullivan owned or managed by UGA grads were nominated and ranked, and the fastest growing 100 were recognized at a Jan. 30 celebration at Atlanta’s InterContinental Hotel. This event was several years in the planning and its success was a result of a lot of hard work by many of your fellow UGA alumni.

Through the planning process we wondered what the results would show, which of our colleges would have nominees, and how the current economic cycle would impact the characterization of this year’s winners. As the final results were tabulated, the Bulldog 100’s far-reaching impact became clear, as nearly every school and college on campus had winning representatives.

The range of businesses and their industries showed extraordinary breadth as recipients were health care, legal services, technology, retail, real estate, financial services, construction, and manufacturing professionals. The growth rates that several firms exhibited had some people saying, “What recession?”

It’s clear that when it comes to being champions, UGA’s greatest accomplishments are occurring off the courts and playing fields, and in the everyday arenas where the University of Georgia is preparing graduates for lifetimes of competition and excellence.

Congratulations to this year’s “Fastest Growing Bulldog Business,” Hitson Land and Timber Management Inc. of Port Orange, Fla., and owner Greg Hitson (BSFR ’94). I hope to see your company next year on the 2011 list.

Winning titles in athletics is a thrilling experience and we all hope for more, but when it comes to the true purpose of a university, our graduates win honors of even greater importance every day.

—Vic Sullivan (BBA ’80), president

UGA Alumni Association

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Deborah Dietzler, Executive Director ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OFFICERS Vic Sullivan BBA ’80 President, Albany Steve Jones BBA ’78, JD ’87 Vice President, Athens Tim Keadle BBA ’78 Treasurer, Lilburn Harriette Bohannon BSFCS ’74 Secretary, Augusta Trey Paris BBA ’84, MBA ’85 Immediate Past President, Gainesville

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION WEB SITE www.uga.edu/alumni To receive a membership brochure, call: 800/606-8786 or 706/542-2251 Annual membership: $35 (single), $50 (joint) To receive a monthly e-newsletter, enroll at: www.uga.edu/alumni ADDRESS CHANGES E-mail records@uga.edu or call 888/268-5442

ability, leadership, and building successful organizations. He and wife Renee have four children. Rick Hamilton (BBA ’79) of Marietta joined HLB Gross Collins P.C., an Atlanta-based public accounting and consulting firm, as a tax principal.

Ken Jackson (BBA ’79, MAcc ’80) of Chattanooga, Tenn., was appointed vice chairman of the University of Georgia Foundation. He also sits on the Tull School of Accounting Advisory Board and on the advisory board of insurance company FM Global. Ken is an executive of the Shaw Industries Group. Lynn Rodgers (BBA ’79) of Signal Mountain, Tenn., is one of 10 women selected by Girls Inc. to be recognized as outstanding role models in the Chattanooga area as part of the organization’s 2009 UnBought and UnBossed Awards.

1980-1984

Paul Hanna (BBA ’81) of Athens joined the Staubach Company in Atlanta as director in 2006. When Staubach merged with Jones Lang LaSalle in 2008, Paul became vice president. Dan Sparks (AB ’81) of Birmingham, Ala., was named to Birmingham Magazine’s 2009 Top Lawyers for bankruptcy. Art Barry (BBA ’82) of Macon was named the 2008 Number One Industrial Sales Professional Worldwide for Coldwell Banker Commercial. He has also earned a spot in the company’s Platinum Level Circle of Distinction, an honor bestowed on the top eight percent of producers among the nearly 3,000-member Coldwell Banker Commercial network of professionals.

LeCretia Johnson (BBA ’82) of Atlanta received a Governor’s Commendation for Excellence in Customer Service by Gov. Sonny Perdue. LeCretia is the director of Georgia’s Office of Child Support Services Contact Center. Pat Shannon (BBA ’83) of Atlanta was appointed executive vice president and CFO of First Data. P. Fred Kelly (BBA ’84) merged his certified public accounting firm with another practice in Gainesville, Ga., to create Kelly & Bell LLP accounting firm. Mike McCurley (AB ’84) of Watkinsville is the senior vice president of the new First Century Bank branch in Athens.

1985-1989

Kellie McTier (ABJ ’85) is the executive vice president of First State Bank & Trust

40 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

ALUMNI calendar Company. George Monk (BBA ’85) of Macon is senior director of underwriting for the Georgia Farm Bureau Insurance Company. Art Parker (BBA ‘86) of Charlotte, N.C., was promoted to executive vice president and chief financial officer for health care provider, MedCath.

Tim Prince (BBA ’86) of Sandy Springs married Julie Krantz Southard. The wedding was held at their 210-year-old country home, which had undergone a twoyear restoration project. Conni Williams Shaw (BBA ’86, MBA ’01) of Hamilton, Ohio, married Gregory Scott Shaw. They are now the proud parents of Fisher James. Conni is a senior implementation consultant with redLantern, LLC. Ira Bershad (BBA ’87) of Plano, Texas, is a partner at national executive search firm Kaye/Bassman International. Ira is the firm’s practice leader for its consumer products specialty practice. Tim Davis (BBA ’89) of Alpharetta is executive vice president and CIO of TechLINKS. Tim was named the 2008 Georgia CIO of the Year by the Georgia CIO Leadership Association. Allen Mitchell (BBA ’89) of Atlanta is a national bank examiner with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in Atlanta. Michael Ostergard (BBA ’89) of Marietta was named North American managing partner for Accenture’s corporate direction consulting practice. Lisa Bantley Yannet (BBA ’89) of Savannah is a real estate agent with Keller Williams Realty Coastal Area Partners. Lisa received her real estate license in 2007 and is vice president and co-owner of Horizon Staffing Inc., a fulltime service temporary staffing company specializing in temp-to-hire and direct hire placements.

1990-1994

Joe Alexander (BBA ’90) of Atlanta is now with DLA Piper. Joe was formerly a corporate partner with Hunton & Williams. Phil Foil (BBA ’90) of Winder was appointed executive director for the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority. Kevin Howard (BBA ’90) of Augusta completed residency and fellowship training at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C. He has joined Augusta Internal Medicine with plans to practice general internal medicine and sleep medicine. Kevin is married to Carol Black from Peterborough, Ontario. Vir-

Thursday, March 25 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM Alumni Gathering at Spring Hill Suites Join fellow alumni and friends for a networking event with free appetizers at a brand new hotel.

Tuesday, April 6 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM Alumni Gathering at Hotel Indigo, Rialto Room Join fellow alumni and friends at Athens’ newest music venue and networking hot spot.

Saturday, April 10 3rd Annual SAA G-Day Tailgate Students, get fired up for the 2010 edition of the Georgia Bulldogs and join us in Tate Plaza before the game.

Saturday, April 17 3:00 PM Student Alumni Association Ring Ceremony Receive your class ring in a ceremony celebrating your years as a student and your future as a graduate of UGA. Thursday, March 11, April 8, and May 6 6:00 PM Boston—Bulldogs After Business Hours Join fellow UGA alumni and friends the first Thursday of every month. This is a great way to find other Bulldogs living in the Boston area.

SPECIAL

For more information: Athens area events.............Wanda Darden at wdarden@uga.edu or (706) 542-2251 Student programs...............Julie Cheney at jcheney@uga.edu or (706) 542-2251 Atlanta programs................ Meredith Carr at mcarr@uga.edu or (404) 814-8820 Chapters and clubs.............Tami Gardner at tgardner@uga.edu or (706) 542-2251

To learn more about the UGA Alumni Association or find a chapter or club in your area, go to

www.uga.edu/alumni.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

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ALUMNI PROFILE

Putting the Spin on the music scene Journalism student followed his love for music to a magazine career

by David Menconi Charles Aaron came to the University of Georgia to be a sportswriter, enrolling as a journalism major in 1980. But rock ’n’ roll turned out to be his real major, and it’s a big reason why he’s the music editor at Spin magazine now.

“I could not have had a better education if I’d planned it,” Aaron SPECIAL (M ’85) says. “Virtually every great CHARLES AARON underground band of the ’80s played in Athens, and there were all these people who were so into music. It was a combination of a strong journalism school, student paper and music scene, and a bizarre confluence of interesting people. The life of the mind was crackling all over campus, whether I went to class or not.”

The starting point in Aaron’s evolution from covering sports to music was at the 40 Watt Club during an early 1980s show by the hardcore band Bad Brains, an experience he calls “mind-blowing, the most revelatory show ever.” He wrote a 200-word review for the Red and Black student newspaper and plunged headlong into the Athens music scene with R.E.M., the B-52s and Pylon. It didn’t take long for him to decide that music was a better fit than sports.

After leaving UGA in 1985, Aaron moved to New York and found work writing and editing at Adweek, Sassy and even the Fullbright & Jaworsky law firm. He also spent a decade as a freelance writer, landing pieces in Rolling Stone, Spin, the Village Voice and Vibe. After Aaron interviewed Snoop Dogg’s estranged father for a 1993 Spin feature, the rapper was so incensed that he faxed a twoword expletive in response.

“It’s the typical thing,” Aaron sighs. “You think it’s a good story—and he won’t talk to Spin for two years. So many stories I thought were good, and afterward they won’t talk to us for two years. I still think that story has the best quotes I ever got. Everybody was high and lying, making fun of the weird, out-ofhis-depth white guy.”

Aaron joined Spin as an editor in 1996 and moved up to music editor in 2002, coordinating, assigning and editing every issue’s music content from the cover story down to the record reviews and still writing a fair chunk of it himself.

As an alternative to Rolling Stone, Spin is the perfect place for him.

“My voice fits more with Spin’s babbling incoherent non-voice, the cacophony of dysfunctional personalities,” he says. “I’ve always believed in the space that Spin occupies, between the margins and the mainstream.”

—David Menconi is the music critic at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.

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ginia McNeill-Tompkins (MS ’92) of Fort Myers, Fla., is the director of sales for Gilroy Foods and Flavors, a division of ConAgra Foods. Gerry Lee Williams (BBA ’92) of Atlanta is now with DLA Piper. Formerly he was a corporate partner with Hunton & Williams. James Albert Franklin Jr. (BBA ’93) of Atlanta joined the management team as vice president of professional services with Omnilink Systems, a LBS monitoring solutions company. Hank Hurst (BBA ’93) of Fernandina Beach, Fla., was named as one of the 2009 “40 under 40” professionals by the Jacksonville Business Journal.

He is a second-generation accountant, and he has six other Tull School of Accounting graduates in his family. Robb Hays (BBA ’94) of Cumming marked 10 years as controller for Hennessy Lexus of Gwinnett. He is also the controller for Hennessy Porsche in Roswell. Deborah Nickel Hood (AB ’94), the senior series producer of This Old House, was honored for her efforts when the show won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lifestyle Program. Mike Tuggle (ABJ ’94) lives in Tokyo, Japan, with his wife Kyung Lah and works as a freelance producer. He was part of the team that won a DuPont-Columbia award for the selection of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 and spent over a year and a half in Baghdad covering the war in one-month stints, first as a producer and then as bureau chief.

1995-1999

Kelley Richardson Hester (ABJ ’95) is the 2009 LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals Coach of the Year. Bernard Reynolds (AB ’95) and Ellen Williams Reynolds (JD ’96) were married on Feb. 7, 2009. They formed a new Atlantabased public affairs firm, True North Public Affairs Inc. Omari Hardwick (AB ’96) is an actor in Los Angeles starring in the TNT series “Dark Blue.”

Julia Purcell Brown (BBA ’97) of Dewy Rose, Ga., is one of 13 business people starting a bank in Elberton and Hartwell that has received preliminary approval from the FDIC and the state of Georgia.

Angie Graham Kahrmann (BBA ’97), the chief financial officer of the Bank of Eastman and Magnolia Bankshares Inc., is on the bank’s board of directors.

Mary Ann Crain (EdS ’98) retired as a math specialist at Benefield Elementary School in Gwinnett County. Erin Doyle Hake (BBA ’98) and Michael J. Hake (BBA ’97) of Marietta welcomed the birth of their daughter (and future Georgia Bulldog) Kendall Elizabeth. Rodrecas “Drék” Davis (BFA ’98, MFA ’06), an assistant professor at Grambling State University, gave a solo exhibition at Louisiana Tech University. “Idle Worship,” an exhibition of mixed media and assemblage works, focuses on the intersection of pop culture, history, politics and religion.

Heather Duerre Humann (AB ’98), her husband Madison Black Humann (AB ’00) and their daughter Ashley McKenzie Humann, age 3, welcomed James Madison Humann on Jan. 21. Heather is a faculty member in the English department at the University of Alabama. John Minahan (BBA ’98) of Smyrna has published a book, Business Mechanic: 9 Simple Ways to Improve Your Business, which was picked up by Barnes & Noble. Minahan is the CFO and co-founder of Working Media Group, ranked No. 20 on the “Inc 500.” A sample chapter of his book is available at: www.businessmechanicbook.com. Gina Ragsdale (BBA ’98) of Atlanta was awarded the WE (Rising Star Award) by the National Association of Women Business Owners. The award recognizes women business owners who have achieved exceptional new business startup results. Ulmer “Zeke” Bridges III (AB ’99) and Grace Bolles Bridges welcomed their daughter Gabriella Francesca Bridges on July 16. Courtney Cameron Shields (BBA ’99) and James Kevin Shields (BBA ’98) of Montevallo, Ala., welcomed the birth of their daughter, Cassandra Gail. Krista Anderson Volzke (BBA ’99) of Omaha, Neb., and husband, Spencer, celebrated the birth of their first child, Grace Muriel Volzke.

Krista works as a learning events coordinator with Gallup.

Board. Clint is with Fleming Insurance Agency. Matt Pollard (BBA ’00) of Marietta was promoted to managing consultant of Forsythe Solutions Group and received the company’s 2008 A-Player award. Jesse Blanton (BSEd ’01) and Robin Carver Blanton (BSEd ’00, MEd ’02) of Enterprise, Ala., welcomed their son Joshua Thomas on May 10. They also have a daughter, Lauren Marie. Lola Campbell (BBA ’01) of New York, N.Y., a former assistant vice president with Lehman Brothers, participated in a Fox

Business panel discussion on the collapse of the company. Lola is now with Nomura Securities International. Toby Carr (BBA ’01, BSAE ’01) of Decatur is executive director of the Georgia Republican Party. Robert Comerford (BBA ’01) is the executive director of the Downtown LaGrange Development Authority. Teri Evans (BBA ’01) is the community economic development coordinator for Athens-Clarke County.

Carolyn Miller Huresky (BBA ’01) of Crested Butte, Colo., launched a line

2000-2004

Clint Ivy (BBA ’00) of Albany was appointed to serve on the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America’s (IIABA) Young Agents Executive Committee. He was the past Georgia Young Agents Committee chairman and is a member of the Terry Young Alumni

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

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CLASSNOTES

of upscale fitness and sports accessories named “Qteaze.” The products are available at http://www.qteaze.net. Anna Cate Ridley Little (ABJ ’01), Katie Davidson Adams (AB ’01) and Matt Little (BBA ’01) are the creative director, chief executive officer and chief financial officer, respectively, at Icing on the Cookie, a specialty bakery in Birmingham, Ala. Cam Wilbur (BBA ’01) of Acworth was selected to serve a three-year term on the Terry College of Business Young Alumni Board. He is currently executive vice president and financial advisor at Wiser Wealth Management, Inc. Chad A. Thompson (BBA ’02), owner of New South BBQ in Tucker and National BBQ Rankings, won Grand Champion at the Lane Southern Orchard Peach Pit BBQ Cook-off in Fort Valley as the head chef of the New South BBQ cook team. Taylor Julius Hicks (AB ’03) is the branch manager of Ferguson Enterprises Inc. in Marietta. Jeremy Faughtenberry (BBA ’04) of Lilburn founded Mercury Investments LLC. Eric Knox (BBA ’04)

44 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

of Nashville, Tenn., joined the law offices of Bass, Berry & Sims. Ross Yasin (BBA ’04, BSA ’04) of Perry is an ERP deployment specialist with Pro-Build in Denver, Colo. He is working on a project designed to integrate Pro-Build’s 550 locations into one uniform system.

2005-

Christopher Arnold (BBA ’05) of Macon was named an associate at the law office of Jones, Cork and Miller LLP. Adam Cohen (BBA ’06) of Atlanta married Julie Dane-Kellogg (BBA ’06, MAcc ’07). Adam is a senior management consultant at Tenon Consulting Solutions of Alpharetta. Julie has recently earned her CPA and is a tax associate at Habif, Arogeti & Wynne, LLP of Atlanta. Marcus Cayce Myers (MA ’06) received his JD from Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law and is currently the judicial law clerk for judges A. Wallace Cato and J. Kevin Chason of the South Georgia Judicial Circuit Superior Courts. Jean

Paul Perrilliat (AB ’07) is a participant in the 2009 Japan Exchange Teaching program, working to improve foreign language education in Japan and to promote international understanding. Dean Tretinik (BBA ’07) from Roswell joined the Atlanta office of the public accounting firm Carr, Riggs & Ingram LLC. Madeline Jane Mitchell (BBA ’09) of Augusta was accepted into the UGA Law School. Brent Roland (BBA ’09) joined Trinity Accounting Group as a staff accountant. Joseph Turrentine (AB ’09) joined Teach for America, the national corps of top recent college graduates who commit to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong advocates for educational equality.

GRAD NOTES Arts & Sciences

James L. Smith (BSFR ’76, MS ’79), manager of the Nature Conservancy’s

Alums soar with Lady Antebellum Lady Antebellum, a country blues band that includes two UGA alumni, walked away from the 2010 Grammys with the award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Lady Antebellum burst onto the music scene in 2007 featuring UGA grads Charles Kelley (BBA ’04) and David Haywood (BBA ’04). Along with Hillary Scott the band won “Vocal Group of the Year” and “Single of the Year” at the 2009 Country Music Association Awards and “Top New Group” at the 2008 Academy of Country Music awards. Kelley and Haywood were high school classmates in Augusta, Ga., before coming to UGA. They met Scott in Nashville in the summer of 2006. For more on Lady Antebellum, go to http://ladyantebellum.com.

MIRANDA PENN TURIIN

DAVID HAYWOOD, HILLARY SCOTT, CHARLES KELLEY

LANDFIRE project, received the U.S. Geological Survey’s 2009 John Wesley Powell Award. Donald Schaffner (MS ’85, PhD ’89) received the 2009 Elmer Marth Educator Award for the International Association for Food Protection.

Stanford G. Wilson (BSA ’93, MAEXT ’98) and John C. Stivarius (AB ’77) are two of Georgia Trend’s “Legal Elite” for 2009. Renita Jones Anderson (PhD ’94) and Rob Anderson of Decatur welcomed their daughter Chloe Jane on Aug. 29. Robert E. Frank (PhD ’95) is the director of international affairs at Longwood University in Farmville, Va. Lynn Hanson (PhD ’96), an assistant professor of English, received the Shared Governance Award, sponsored by the FMU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Christopher Fennell (MFA ’02), a renowned sculptor, completed his first colossal creation in Maine. Scott Chandler Tobias (MMEd ’94, DMA ’04), associate professor of music at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., is one of seven professors to receive the University of North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

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ALUMNI PROFILE

Tooting his own horn Music education major Brian Turnmire plays for some of the world’s most prominent audiences

by John English

MARINE BAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE

BRIAN TURNMIRE

Brian Turnmire is more than a full-time musician, he is a witness to history.

As a trumpeter in “The President’s Own” United States Marine Corps Band, Staff Sgt. Turnmire (BMus ’02) has a ringside seat to some of the most exclusive events in the nation, including the last two presidential inaugurations.

“It’s an incredibly long day of performances,” says the Ridgeland native. “We play live at the swearing-in ceremony, march down Pennsylvania Avenue in the parade and then play again at one of the

inaugural balls, ending about midnight.”

Since January 2003 Turnmire has performed with the 160-member band, the nation’s oldest continuously active musical organization, which was formed in 1798.

His first job after graduation from UGA was as principal trumpeter with the Chattanooga Symphony. But he also had auditioned for the Marine band, and when that job came through he enlisted for a four-year tour and moved to Washington, D.C. He has re-enlisted twice since then.

“I was hired for classical work, but I also perform in different ensembles within the band,” he says. “I played with the jazz combo at the White House for a Stevie Wonder event last Spring. I played guitar in a country-and-western performance on the White House lawn on the Fourth of July and play ‘Taps’ at funerals at Arlington National Cemetery.”

He also performs with a brass quintet called Five Star Brass and sometimes plays banjo and cornet on national tours with the Marine Corps Band.

“It’s like no other job,” Turnmire says. “My work hours are never the same. I’m always on call. I have to be ready to step in on short notice. Last Monday I got called to play for a congressional ball. ” In the summer he plays the outdoor concert series on the U.S. Capitol steps and on the Mall. He also is involved in the Music in the Schools program and directs music at a local church.

Turnmire continues advanced private studies with three music coaches, two principal trumpet players and a professor.

“I learned from UGA Professor Fred Mills that to be a lifelong learner, I have to keep learning new techniques and keep at it,” he says.

“I never thought I’d be doing this. The level of playing is quite high, and my parents are proud of me—that means a lot.”

“I appreciate being lucky enough to get a job playing music full time. Some of my ceremonial jobs even show up on C-SPAN.”

—John W. English, a professor emeritus of journalism at the University of Georgia, is a frequent contributor to GM.

46 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Accounting

Steven Voynich (MAcc ’05) of Columbus, Ga., was featured in an article in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. Brant Barrow (BBA ’08, MAcc ’09) of Atlanta received his Masters of Accountancy degree from the Terry College upon his completion of the program at the University of Bocconi in Milan, Italy.

After interning at KPMG International Accounting Firm, he served as a KPMG Ambassador for recruiting at UGA. He now joins KPMG as an auditor in the Atlanta office. Brant is currently serving a three-year term as a member of the UGA Terry College of Business Young Alumni Board.

Business

Neal Glenn (MBA ’75) is one of 13 business people starting a bank in Elberton and Hartwell that has received preliminary approval from the FDIC and the state of Georgia. Trey Paris (BBA ’84, MBA ’85) of Gainesville, Ga., immediate past president of the UGA Alumni Association, helped the association initiate a program called “100 Best Bulldogs,” which recognizes businesses owned or operated by UGA grads. The first awards were featured at a gala in January 2010 in Atlanta. George Cheng (PhD ’84) of Virginia Beach, Va., was named to Who’s Who in America. Diane Peoples (BBA ’85, MBM ’88), a senior account executive with the Norton Agency, a full-service advertising agency, opened an office in Atlanta. Stefan Terwindt (MBA ’89) of Atlanta was appointed executive vice president of The Arcas Group, a leading life-sciences marketing organization. Jason Herskowitz (MBA ’96) of Potomac Falls, Va., joined Lime Wire as vice president for product management. Alex Wes Griffin (MBA ’01) of Chesapeake, Va., is an active duty naval supply officer and is currently assigned as military cooperation division fund manager at NATO headquarters, Supreme Allied Command Transformation, Norfolk, Va. He won first place in the 2008 Defense Acquisition University Alumni Association Hirsch Research Paper competition. Alex Patterson (BBA ’01, MBA ’05), chief systems officer of the South Georgia Health System in Valdosta, was accepted into the Leader-

ship GHA Class of 2009-10, a prestigious health care leadership program of the Georgia Hospital Association. He was one of only 22 hospital employees from around the state accepted into the program. Rachel Elliott (MBA ’08) of Atlanta is the operations director for Professional MBA Programs in the Terry College of Business.

Education

Maxine Burton (BSEd ’72, MEd ’78), president and chief operating officer of burton + BURTON, is one of Gifts and Decorative Accessories Magazine’s “15 Gifted Women.” Freida Hill (MEd ’82, EdD ’92) is chancellor of Alabama’s two-year college system. She is the first female to hold the position on a permanent basis. Connie Fox (EdD ’84), associate professor in the department of kinesiology and physical education, is the associate dean for the college of education at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill. Sheila O. Kahrs (EdD ’92), the principal of Haymon-Morris Middle School in Winder is the 2009-10

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

47

NEWBOOKS Unthinkable Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2009

By Scott Rigsby (BSFCS ’93) After Scott Rigsby lost both of his legs in a car accident at age 18, he battled depression and addiction before becoming the first double-leg amputee to ever cross the finish line in the Ironman Triathlon, the world’s most grueling and prestigious competition. Unthinkable follows Rigsby on his journey from the crash to the finish line.

A History of First Baptist Church: Opelika, Alabama, 18592009 (FBC, 2009) Craftmaster Printers Inc., 2009

By Daniel Webster Hollis III (AB ’64) Written for the sesquicentennial anniversary of the church, covering its pastors, organizations and physical buildings over 150 years. The book is clothbound with illustrations, appendices and an index. The church has many Georgia connections.

Therapy Online: A Practical Guide Sage Publications, Ltd., 2009

By DeeAnna Merz Nagel (MEd ’94) and Kate Anthony This guide provides research and ethical and legal advice on the practice of setting up or joining a service. It also offers the essential therapeutic skills needed to be an effective online therapist.

Georgia Criminal Law Case Finder LexisNexis-Matthew Bender & Company Inc., 2009

By Donald F. Samuel (JD ’80) A good resource for fast access to criminal case law. Georgia Criminal Law

48 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Case Finder arranges case summaries in chronological order under topical headings for ready reference. Unique to such references, Georgia Criminal Law Case Finder separates many of the cases into those favorable to the defense and those favorable to the prosecution.

Eleventh Circuit Criminal Handbook LexisNexis-Matthew Bender & Company Inc., 2009

By Donald F. Samuel (JD ’80) This comprehensive handbook gives criminal attorneys, prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges the most current articulation of the 11th Circuit’s criminal law, both constitutional and statutory. The book provides objective, comprehensive information on such aspects as sentencing guidelines, constitutional law, criminal procedures and federal offenses.

Marching In Step University of Georgia Press, 2009

By Alex Macaulay (PhD ’03) Combining the nuanced perspective of an insider with the critical distance of a historian, Alexander Macaulay examines The Citadel’s reactions to major shifts in postwar life, from the rise of the counterculture to the demise of the Cold War. This study raises questions over issues of Southern distinctiveness and sheds light on the South’s real and imagined relationship with the rest of America.

The Art of Managing Longleaf The University of Georgia Press, 2009

By Leon Neel (BSFR ‘50) with Paul S. Sutter and Albert G. Way (PhD ’08) Greenwood Plantation in the Red Hills region of southwest Georgia includes a rare 1,000 acre stand of old-growth longleaf pine woodlands, a remnant of an ecosystem that once covered close to 90 million acres across the Southeast. Often described as an art informed by science, the Stoddard-Neel Approach combines

frequent prescribed burning, highly selective logging, a commitment to a particular woodland aesthetic, intimate knowledge of the ecosystem and its processes, and other strategies to manage the longleaf pine ecosystem in a sustainable way.

The Final Victim Publish America, 2009

By Bill Harwell (AB ’66, EdS ’85) In the final game of his football career, Arthur Drake sustains a permanent leg injury and must abandon his dream of playing professional football. After graduation, he becomes a real estate agent.

Twenty-five years later, his old college flame, Amanda, seeks his help—the police think she is guilty of murdering her husband, the man she left Arthur for years ago. Arthur agrees to help her, but he wonders what he has gotten into as the body count begins to climb.

Strong Fox AuthorHouse, 2009

By Stan Cartwright (MEd ’91) and Edna Dixon Fox has learned to survive by using his wits, and his surprising knowledge enables him to have a profound effect on one young boy and an entire village. As in the tradition of our ancestors, Strong Fox serves to entertain while inspiring children to face difficulties in their lives by focusing on their strengths rather than their weaknesses.

Devil Worship: A Fan’s Voyage with the 2008/2009 Manchester United Red Devils World Audience Inc., 2009

By Kevin Leyland (AB ’04, BBA ’04) Leyland’s semi-autobiographical work chronicles his experiences following the most recognizable soccer club in the world, England’s Manchester United. The book discusses the 2008/2009 season’s results on a game-by-game basis from an American fan’s perspective.

CLASSNOTES

Handbook for Life: A Guide to Suicide Prevention His Work Christian Publishing, 2009

By Dr. Myra McSwain Kamran (BS ’88) A guide for the laity and ministers, this book gives information on how to help those struggling with suicidal thoughts and their loved ones.

Supplemented by biblical content, this handbook cites examples of those who have been helped.

Flowers Canarium Books, 2010

By Paul Killebrew (AB ’01) Killebrew’s first collection of poetry has been touted by renowned poet and Pulitzer Prize recipient John Ashbery, who said that Flowers “plunges us into a world we inhabit but seldom notice, forcing its horror on us but also reminding us why we go on coping with it.” Killebrew, who is an attorney at Innocence Project in New Orleans, also wrote Forget Rita and Inspector vs. Evader.

Ethical Footprints Infinity Publishing, 2009

By Joseph P. Hester (PhD ’73) Comprised of 52 weekly meditations, Hester’s book is designed to challenge and motivate readers on their leadership journeys wherever they live or work. It is a companion book to Hester’s Ethic of Hope.

ONLINE Find more books by UGA graduates at www.uga.edu/gm

SUBMISSIONS Submit new books written by UGA alumni to simmonsk@uga.edu. Please include a brief description of the book and a hi-res pdf or tiff of its cover.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

49

CLASSNOTES

National Middle Level Principal of the Year. Juanita Johnson-Bailey (MEd ’93, EdD ’94) was named to the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame’s Class of 2009. Cynthia Ann Greer (MEd ’95) is the 2009 Teacher of the Year for the Texas Chapter of the Council for Learning Disabilities. Angela Robinson Yancey (BSEd ’91, MEd ’96) of Rome, Ga., completed a specialist degree in educational leadership at Lincoln Memorial University and teaches gifted education at Model Elementary School in Floyd County. Brooke Barrick (BSFCS ’02, MEd ’03) is an independent stylist at Stella & Dot.

Law

Jim Blanchard (BBA ’63, JD ’65), retired Synovus chairman and CEO, received the first Georgia Ethics in Business Award, which will henceforth be named after him. Robert Calhoun Martin Jr. (JD ’80) is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Ertharin Cousin (JD ’82), a senior adviser to the Obama presidential campaign, is the president’s ambassador to the three U.N. food agencies in Rome. Daniel P. Griffin (BBA

50 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

’83, JD ’86) is a partner and managing member of the Miller & Martin law firm’s Atlanta office. Stephen Kelley (JD ’86) was named the District Attorney of the Year by the District Attorneys Association of Georgia. Lori T. Chesser (JD ’87) of Des Moines, Iowa, was recognized by the 2010 Best Lawyers in America in immigration law.

David Tomlin (BBA ’85, JD ’90) joined RCB Financial Services and River City Bank as a financial consultant. Sheri Roberts (BBA ’85, MBA ’86, JD ’92) of Covington was appointed to a four-year term as judge of the Newton County Juvenile Court. James Blitch (MBA ’96, JD ’96) of Atlanta won a Professionalism Award from the Atlanta Bar Association at the annual meeting and awards luncheon. Jim is with Holland Schaeffer Roddenbery Blitch LLP. Chris Smith (JD ’99), an attorney at Hunter Maclean, is on the board of directors for the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Savannah, a non-profit organization that provides a safe, welcoming place for more than 1,500 local youth and their families. Patrick N. Millsaps (JD ’00) was appointed to the Georgia State Ethics Commission

by Gov. Sonny Perdue. Anita Johnson Clark (AB ’98, JD ’01) and Ted Clark of Jonesboro welcomed their daughter Catherine “Cate” Lucy Clark on Sept. 4.

Pharmacy

Elizabeth Morgan Millsaps (PharmD ’03) owns and operates MAK Medical and MAK Pharmacy in Camilla, providing specialty pharmacy and home infusion services to more than 30 rural counties in Southwest Georgia. Erica Woodard Bowles (PharmD ’04), a long-term care pharmacist at Gayco Healthcare in Dublin and Brian Bowles welcomed their daughter Addison Nicole on Dec. 10. They also have a son, Hayden Brian.

Obituaries can be found online at www.uga.edu/gm

I

CLASSNOTES

WHY give

“

NOW PLAYING exclusively on

I was a member of the UGA Redcoat Band all four years. There, I met

my future spouse, Vicki Carlton (Jones), a Georgette. I learned how to play jazz in the UGA Jazz Ensemble from Roger Dancz. I am forever indebted to the university music program, Roger, Steve, and Phyllis Dancz, and the Redcoat Band for the changes that occurred in my life at UGA. My giving to promote jazz at the Hodgson School of Music is one small way in which I can give back to the university that so richly rewarded me during my tenure there with not only a great education, but a lifelong gift of music.

”

—Dr. Saunders Jones Jr. (BS ’75) After graduating from UGA with a degree in chemistry, Jones went on to attend the Medical College of Georgia to become an orthopedic surgeon. Over the past five years, gifts from Jones, who is a descendant of the Hodgson family, and his wife have paid for new equipment for jazz classes and performance groups including a vocal ensemble, the Jazz Combos, the UGA Jazz Band and Classic City Jazz. They’ve also provided computer equipment that allows individualized instruction in desktop production, film scoring and other areas that contribute to success in commercial music. With their support the school has brought in visiting artists to work with students in jazz saxophone, guitar and bass and has established a Jazz Studies Abroad program. Jones, who retired from practicing medicine, lives in Cartersville and is an assistant professor at Kennesaw State University. He continues to enjoy playing in and directing several local jazz ensembles.

Saunders Jones Jr.

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GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

51

ALUMNI PROFILE

Charmed Music major Jennifer Holloway travels the globe performing opera—with her two-year-old in tow

instruction.”

She graduated from UGA at 23, married in August 2001, and was 24 when she and her husband moved to New York so she could attend the Manhattan School of Music. She sought out apprenticeships at opera companies that supported professionals, not wunderkinds, and she found those opportunities at Pittsburgh Opera and Santa Fe Opera.

Soon, she caught the attention of acclaimed soprano Laura Claycomb, who introduced Holloway to her managers and remains a friend.

Her second summer at Santa Fe in 2006 was the turning point, when she was unexpectedly offered a main role as Le Prince Charmant in Laurent Pelly’s production of Massenet’s “Cendrillon.”

That was “the big break sort of thing,” said Holloway. “After that summer at Santa Fe, things took off

by Mary Jessica Hammes (ABJ ’99)

When mezzo-soprano Jennifer Holloway first shared the stage with Placido Domingo at the Teatro Real Madrid in April 2008, performing as Irene in Handel’s “Tamerlano,” she was almost too exhausted to even notice. Her first child was just weeks old, and Holloway was on a whirlwind tour of performing in Europe’s top opera houses.

“I was so nonplussed with everything because in my mind I was just kind of a mom,” says Holloway (BMus ’00).

These days, Holloway fully apDAVID CROSS JENNIFER HOLLOWAY preciates her rapid rise to fame in the opera world, speaking about it as if she can’t quite believe it’s her own life. for me.”

“The houses I’ve sung at—I sang a title role at GlyndeTo prepare for the part, she went back to her early role bourne!” she says, referring to the famous Glyndebourne of Orlofsky, remembering the tips she received from local Festival Opera that has been held in East Sussex, Engactor Steve Elliott-Gower (formerly associate director of land, since 1934. “That doesn’t happen! To have Placido UGA’s Honors Program) who appeared with her in “Die recognize me in the street and say, ‘Hi, Jen, how are you Fledermaus.” She has since built a reputation for brilliantly doing?’—what is that all about?” playing men’s parts.

Becoming an opera singer was not Holloway’s dream.

“I’m a very tall woman with broad shoulders and huge As a child in Ohio, she played piano and trumpet, loved hands and huge feet and a square jaw,” she continues. musical theater and sang with her sisters in the car with her “I’m easily transformed into a male if you take out my mother. chest and hips. You find something you’re good at, and you At the University of Georgia, she planned to be a music just fit into those shoes—or pants, as the case may be.” educator, studying euphonium and voice. She enjoyed folk She made her European debut in the 2006-2007 seamusic, the drum corps and faithfully attended her drummer son, performing the role of Baroness Aspasia in Rossini’s boyfriend (now husband) Duane Holloway’s gigs with local “La Pietra del Paragone” in Italy and France. band Squat.

For the 2007-08 season, she traveled Europe extenBut in 1999, UGA’s School of Music and the Athens sively with baby Lily in tow, spending just six weeks in each Classic Center formed the Athena Grand Opera Company, place, sharing child-rearing duties with first her husband debuting with Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” Holloway landed and then her mother. the role of Third Lady. In 2000, the company produced “There’s no staying in one place with this job,” Holloway Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus,” and Holloway was Prince Orlofsays, “We’ll take root (soon), either in Georgia or New York. sky. She remembers that her instructor Gregory Broughton, We can’t decide.” associate professor of voice, told her, “You could really have She doesn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry to figure a career in this.” that part out. “I feel charmed lately,” she says.

“I was like, hey, people really get paid to do this?” says Holloway. “It just so happened that around the right time

—Mary Jessica Hammes is a freelance writer in my life, I really started concentrating on it and had good

living in Athens.

52 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

CLASSNOTES

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • MARCH 2010

53

CLASSNOTES

ALUMNI PROFILE

Raising a ruckus UGA graduate Jim May has been filming musicians for more than 30 years

by John English Jim May has a good gig: hanging out at nice clubs and listening to music. And getting paid to do it.

A video and television producer in Nashville, Tenn., May (AB ’67) SPECIAL PHOTO co-produced 80 episodes of “Live JIM MAY from the Bluebird Café,” Nashville’s premier showcase for songwriters, which appeared on the Turner South television network between 1999 and 2003.

After a five-year run, the Bluebird series led May and his Ruckus Film crew to another project for Turner South called “Music Road.” For that show, they traveled to different Southern venues to record live performances in 2005 and 2006.

“We shot two shows in Athens at the 40 Watt Club—one with the Drive-By Truckers and the other with Vic Chesnutt and Elf Power,” he says. That series earned May regional Emmy Awards for direction, but was cancelled after 10 episodes when Turner South was bought and closed by the Fox Sports network.

May recalls shooting the Bluebird Café series when he and his crew used four hand-held cameras and minimal lighting to capture an hour-long show.

“We televised it without getting in the way or losing the intimacy of the club,” he says. “We emphasized the songwriters’ storytelling and the insider bits behind the songs.”

As the music industry grew, he worked on music videos and TV series with a lot of Nashville entertainers, including Alan Jackson, Kathy Mattea, Clint Black, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Keith Urban and Wynonna Judd.

May’s highest praise is reserved for the late actor and comedian Jim Varney, who created a memorable character named Ernest Worrell. May and Ruckus Film partner Coke Sams produced Varney’s CBS TV series, “Hey Vern, It’s Ernest,” which also won two Emmy Awards.

“Working with Varney was incredible,” May recalls. “His talent and abilities were phenomenal. Once we shot 28 different commercials with him in one day. And his off-camera antics were fun—he was a fountain of obscure information.”

He also has been involved in some feature films—“Dr. Otto,” “Existo,” “Ernest Goes to Camp” and “The Young Billy”—and wants to do more. Ruckus Film has several indie feature proposals in development, he says.

May, who attended Harvard Divinity School after graduating from UGA, also has worked on projects for the Nashville-based United Methodist Church, such as filming in Africa and directing a TV series titled “Catch the Spirit.” The Ruckus Film office is located in an old inner-city church building the company bought 20 years ago. The four partners of Ruckus Film have been together 25 years.

“Our business has changed dramatically, especially the technology,” he says.

“Now I do editing on my laptop and that’s great. ” “Thank my lucky stars I’ve been able to do things that are fun and stay in business.”

—John W. English, a professor emeritus of journalism at the University of Georgia, is a frequent contributor to GM.

54 MARCH 2010 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

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BACK PAGE

GREGORY BROUGHTON Associate professor, voice Hugh Hodgson School of Music

B.S. in Music Education, University of Tennessee Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts, University of Michigan Senior Faculty Teaching Fellow, 2004 Photo shot on location at UGA’s Hugh Hodgson Performing Arts Center

by Andrew Davis Tucker

“I

tell my students here at Georgia, the ones who want to be performers, that they must be a cut above, and they must seek to be so well-informed that they can educate from the stage rather than just simply entertain. The music ed majors I work with at Georgia, I tell them they must be a cut above the stage performer because they are shaping the minds of young people for the future. And they are training and cultivating the minds of the audience for the entertainer.”

—Tenor Gregory Broughton, who also directs the African American Choral Ensemble at UGA

MARCH2010 2010 •• GEORGIA GEORGIAMAGAZINE MAGAZINE 56 56 MARCH

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In just three years, UGA’s popular Music Business Program has certified and placed 53 Music Business graduates in key music industry positions. The Terry College of Business is providing students with the type of hands-on, real-world education that will help them avoid the “school of hard knocks” and fast-track them to the music industry job of their dreams. Many of those jobs are in Georgia, which is now recognized as the 4th entertainment center in the country along with New York, L.A., and Nashville.

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